Authors: Joanne Clancy
The tense courtroom listened as
Mr. Clifford
continued
. "Rebecca McNamara's affection, loyalty and trust yielded nothing more than deception, betrayal and humiliation in response from Mark McNamara. This was a man who cheated on his wife multiple times and who didn't appreciate being found out. He wasn't willing
to accept the consequences of
his actions so instead he decided to take matters into his own hands. The lives of
his wife,
Penelope Garrett and Shona M
organ were to be snuffed out bec
ause they got in the way of his greed. Last of all and equally tragic is his son, Christopher
,
who has been sitting here day after day
,
looking crushed and angry. Mark McNamara has betrayed his own son. The
re's tragedy in all of this." He concluded his
speech with a quote from Shakespeare; "a man may smile and smile and be a villain."
Shortly after
Mr. Clifford
completed his
closing speech, Mark McNamara's barr
ister, Gerald Loftus
,
rose to his feet. "My client maintains his innocent plea. He
voluntarily
took the witness box and answered the questions. He
is not blind, deaf or dumb
. He saw witness after witness taking the stand and he knew what was coming. The decisions on the charges should not be taken lightly or flippantly."
Then he went on to the phone records which were mentioned during the trial and pointed out that two phone calls had been made from Cois Farraige, Mark's family home, to
London
,
on the evening of Wednesday, April 27
th
when Mark McNamara was out of the country. Who made that call? Nobody took the time to pay any attention to parts of Mr. McNamara's story. Nobody took the time to go through every single phone call."
Mr. Loftus
then referred to the email evidence which had been introduced. "According to the police,
the
"
devils-revenge
"
email account was set up on Wednesday, March 30th
at the office of M&R Photography. Supposedly, Mark McNamara was sitting in the office at that time on that day. However, he received a phone call from the office to his mobile phone at 11.21 that morning. The i
nference is that Mr. McNamara was
not in the office at that stage. Christopher McNamara phoned his father on his mobile at 1.15 p.m. If the Prosecution is capable of analysis of cell site, why did they not retrieve information to tel
l
us where Mark was located? It wasn't done and that's a critical part of the case which is absent."
Mr. Loftus
then paused
for dramatic effect which gave
the jury an opportunity to digest exactly what he was saying.
"The investigation was flawed. The police picked up the idea and ran with it. Maybe they were thrilled to be going back and forth to England, working with Scotland Yard. Nobody even stopped for a moment to consider the alternative. It's interesting to note that the police declined the opportunity to make a liar out of Mr. McN
amara in relation to the Henry Whitington-Smyth
story. I thought we were going to get cell site analysis, but nobody bothered to take the time to go through the phone records w
ith a ruler and a highlighter, w
hy not?"
Mr. Loftus
stressed that Rebecca McNamara had written to the Director of Public Prosecutions, expressing her concern about what was going on.
“Mrs. McNamara wrote
that she had known her hu
sband for more than twenty
years and although he was by no means perfect there was no way that he would ever physically
harm anyone. She also explained that Mark
had helped her thr
ough her post-natal depression and that in her opinion the whole thing was a scam by Savannah Kingston, Daniel Williams an
d Henry Whitington-Smyth to extort money from her husband.
The Prosecution's case, while it appears comprehensive, is not. You cannot be sure
that Mr.
McNamara did anything alleged by the Prosecution. My client says he has been put through hell and back. His family has been torn asunder. He's been pilloried in the community and ridiculed in the media. There's a momentum in this case which is almost free-wheeling to a conviction and you cannot all
ow this to happen. Put the brake
s on," he urged the jury.
“
There are several discrepancies in the police notes of Mr. McNamara's interviews compared with
the video evidence. It is
possib
le that someone else may
have written the emails. Mr. McNamara is telling the
truth about Henry Whitington-Smy
th and wa
s indeed a victim of blackmail.
If h
e is guilty
why would he have
voluntarily taken the stand
and humiliated himself, his wife and his son? Wouldn't it have been easier to have pleaded guilty? It is imperative that you look long and hard at the
facts. I urge you not to slavishly accept the computer evidence. I'm asking you to examine the inconsistencies which were found in the Prosecution's case. Nobody paid any attention to Mark McNamara's story.
”
Mr. Loftus’
ninety minute speech brought to an end an em
otional day. It was
five o' clock when the day's proceeding drew to a close. The case was nearing a conclusion and the courtroom was fill
ed with tension
.
The court sat early the following morn
ing and it was the turn of Mr. Kiely
to make his closing speech on behalf of
his client, Savannah Kingston who had decided not to take the witness stand. Mr. Kiely
raised his strong voice several times during his fifty-six minute speech. He began by referring to the charges which the jury had to decide
up
on and then spoke about the identification of Ms. Kingston in the identification parade. "Penelope Garrett opened the door
late at night
to a woman who she had never seen before. They had a brief conversation. A request was made for money, indicating that there was a contract on her life and her friends' lives. This is the arrival of who the Prosecution claims is Ms. Kingston into their lives. Shona Morgan was looking out the side door. The Prosecution has to establish that this was Ms. Kingston and in order to do so they must rely on the witnesses who wer
e there. What if Ms. Garrett simply incorrectly described that person?
After all, it was dark
when the visitor arrived.
This is the opening shot in the State's case against Ms. Kingston. One of the most fundamental building blocks of a criminal trial is identification and that's where the case against Ms. Kingston starts and where it might end."
The cour
troom listened intently to Mr. Kiely
's riveting closing speech
. "The Prosecution claimed
there was nobody else apart from Mr. McNamara who could have sent the emails from "
devils-revenge
" but the State has never said
that
there was anybody other than Savannah Kingston who could have sent those emails. Nobody was going to murder anyone. Their intention was a "shakedow
n", nothing else. Mr. Williams
was involved in a similar "shakedown" in England and there was no charge of conspiracy to murder brought there. Maybe Scotland Yard takes a more hard-nosed approach and they don't get carried away.
Mr. Clifford
said that the ricin element was dramatic and the tip off came from
Mr. Williams
. Ms. Kingston denies the ricin claim. How did the contact lens get into her cell? It's a prison, things are supposed to be checked as they come in and out. My client is the scapegoat in this case. You should be under no illusions that Mark McNamara is the main defendant while
my client
is being dragged alon
g behind him. Clearly, Savannah Kingston
was after money, not out to murder anyone. It was a clownish operation run by clowns in the hope of hooking fools; nothing
more, nothing less.”
There were a few sniggers in the public
gallery at his analogy
. “My client was
by
no
means the only person who had access to the phones and computers seized from the apartment in
London
. The only person with a criminal record
in this case is Daniel Williams
, someone who had a vested interest in giving damning evidence against Savannah and someone whose word should not be trusted. Their scheme
was clumsy and foolish with an asinine plot. I implore you to treat Savan
nah Kingston
with j
ustice and discretion and not
be swayed by the grand
accusations of the Prosecution.
It was soliciting, not a conspiracy. They know that the conspiracy
to murder
charge is a bridge too far, it's as simple as that and
nothing that Daniel Williams
would say could
change that fact. Mr. Williams
says that the intention was murder yet he didn't have a clue as to how the murder was to
actually
take place
. Evidence cannot be welded together by self-serving perjury. I say it was a fraud operation from start to finish. It wasn't dial "M" for murder it was dial "M" for money."
The
task was then left to Judge Enright
to sum up the
evidence and charge the jury. The judge
spent much of his time
recapping the evidence that had
been presented during the case. He concluded by saying that "evidence against one is not evidence against the other. It's a matter of fact, not of emotion. You've got to set asi
de your feelings and
your
personal
views on alleged actions by any of the parties. Consider the evidence as coolly, as dispassionately and objectiv
ely as you can. Leave aside
your prejudices and deal with the facts."
The jury raised a query on the conspiracy to murder charges which the judge addressed. "The matter is
simple at one level but
more complex when you get down to it. It takes at least two to conspire. One would have t
hought it followed logic; i
f there is a failure to prove against one, automatically there is a failure to prove against the other. Where there is doubt, the benefit of that doubt must be given to the accused."
The judge concluded h
is charge to the jury while a
strained
,
pale-
face
d
Mark McNamara listened intently to every word. The end was near and the trauma was clearly visib
le on his face. The jury
retired from the courtr
oom to begin its deliberations;
deliberations which
would take more than eighteen
hours over three da
y
s before the curtain was drawn on the trial.
The worry
was palpable for Mark, Shona, Penelope and Rebecca while Savannah Kingston showed no sign of the st
rain that was in evidence on her
co-accused's face. There was standing room only in the courtroom as police and legal personnel involved in the case, interested onlookers and an increasing posse of journalists packed closely together in the near-suffocating conditions.
The jury was recalled at seven o' clock that evening and was se
nt to a hotel for the night. Judge Enright
told them he would recharge them i
n the morning on matters. "Take it easy
this evening. Don't bother delibera
ting. Relax and have a drink
; you are entitled to it
," the judge told the weary jury before they
finally
left the courtroom ten minutes later.
The courtroom
quickly emptied and the stress
subsided for the evening, but for the two defendants, the waiting continu
ed.
It would be several days before Savannah Kingston and Mark McNamara learned their fate and even longer before they would di
scover the price they had
to pay.
Chapter 17
The convoluted story of Mark McNamara and Savannah Kingston
had
unfolded in front of
the jury and packed courtroom and a
s the trial had continued
the number of people who came to catch a glimpse of the two conspirators grew steadily. Onlookers whispered at the back of the courtro
o
m as they peered at the long wooden bench facing the jury, where every day the defendants took their seats.