Revenge (24 page)

Savannah Kingston cut a lone figure during the trial, but she seemed to actually enjoy the whole experience. She sat with her legal team every day because there was no sign of any support for her. She always appeared pleasant and smiled and chatted easily
with prison officers. She
greeted the journalists with a friendly "hello" and waved to photographers as she was led in and out of court. Her smiles and waves became a feature of the publicity surrounding the case as she seemed like a woman
who didn't have a care or a worry in the world.

However, police investigators involved in the trial described her as a cunning and devious woman. Apart from her communications with her legal tea
m
and prison office
rs, her chats with the media were
her
only brush with people
during the case.
Even her boyfriend, Daniel Williams
, had turned his back on her and had only flown to Irelan
d to give evidence against her.
She did not have any defence witnesses at her disposal and did not go into evidence herself. Onlookers were amazed at how she sat back and smiled as the verdicts
were delivered
on the final day of the trial.

During the trial she wore short, figure-hugging skirts and low-cut tops which accentuated her curvy, petite frame. Every day she tottered into the
courthouse in
stil
etto heels. She was always well turned out and heavily made up with her hair pinned up in a bun. She was strikingly pretty with her long blonde hair and big blue eyes which emphasised her youthful looks. Although she was in her late thirties she looked at least ten years younger. It was hard to believe that this delicate, feminine woman could be involved in a
treacherous
plot to kill. Despite her lack of contact with family or friends during the trial, Savannah never appeared to become despondent; what
’
s
more she seemed to thrive under the media attention.

Savannah had be
en in custody
since her arrest in Westport.
She was
granted free legal aid for the trial. She claimed that she was on holidays in the Westport area but police argued that her motives were far deeper and mor
e sinister than a mere holiday.
It was the State's case that she operated the assassin website and had cons
pired with Mark McNamara via
email to murder the three women. However, while the jur
y convicted her of demanding money
from P
enelope to cancel the contract they
could not conclusively decide
on the conspiracy to murder charges against her. She was also charged with burglary and two counts of handling stolen goods
.

Details of Savannah's interviews with police were introduced as exhibits during the trial. The Prosecution argued that she assumed a flippant tone during her interviews, first claiming that she'd had an affair with Mark, but later retracting the statement. She said that Da
niel Williams
and Mark were in regular telephone contact
but that she never spoke to Mark
. She denied all knowledge of the assassin website or the email addresse
s and insisted that
someone was trying to frame her. Denial seemed to be her only form of defence.

Savannah
did not give evidence in the trial, but the memos of her interviews with the pol
ice were read to the jury. Mr. Kiely
, Savannah's barrister,
argued in his closing speech
that the evidence produced by the State pointed only to fraud and not conspiracy to murder.

"There were inconsistencies and lack of evidence in the State's cas
e. This is a case where there are
a number of possibilities which have been dressed up to look like the most important case on earth. The evidence is inconclusive and cannot be welded together by the self-serv
ing perjury of Daniel Williams
.
The State was after Mark McNamara and they used my client, Savannah Kingston, in order to ensnare him. She was only ever a
prop in their operation. This was a charade which was
worthy of Laurel and Hardy. Do not join the dots for the State. If the judge can't do it, the State can't do it and you can't do it
.
Loo
k who has been here all along; t
hree live exhibits; because nobody was killed."

Chapter 21

As soon as Mark arrived in prison the stories started. Apparently, he was particularly choosy when it
came to eating prison food. He
was a fitness fanatic and was reluctant t
o eat the stodgy prison fare and actually
insisted on a list of special dietary requirements, which were refused with some glee. Every suggestion that the ex-millionaire was getting no special treatment was seized
on and
splash
ed across the front page of
the tabloids. The public were treated to
a dissection of the menus
he was
served and the company
he was
keeping; a world away from the elite compan
y he used to enjoy
.

Two months dragged by until it was time to once aga
in return to court to find out what sentence had been
handed down
to him
. Prison food
may have hung some extra weight
on his previously lean, muscular frame and his hair suffered f
rom the lack of regular trimming
but Mark was in high spirits as he sat in the courtroom. His belief in his own innocence remain
ed unwavering and he was confi
dent in his chances of a successful appeal. He chatted animatedly to the prison officers who stood by his side. It was almost an end to the long waiting and Mark was back to his usual expressive self
.

It was still difficult for him to come to terms with the fact that the
jury had found him guilty but he presented him
self with his head held high and
greeted his legal team with a dazzling smile as they went into a last minute huddle outside the courts. He was sure in the belief that his appear
ance was a mere formality. The harsh reality
wouldn't hit him until
later.

Savannah Kingst
on was in equally good form; laughing and joking with the prison guards and
greeting them as old friends after a long absence. She had been in prison for almost two years at that stage and knew that any sentence she finally received would begin with that time dedu
cted. There was even some specu
l
ation that she might have served her entire sentence if
a sufficiently lenient jail term was handed down.

There was a heightened sense of anticipation in the courtroom which had filled up early that morning as the interest levels peaked. Long before proceeding
s
were due to start the public benches were being filled by the sombre suited figures of the barristers who did not have a prior engagement. The public posse was out in droves too. They gathered early to secure a decent view and the regulars waved to each other like old friends before settling in for the main event. The pres
s was out in force, of course.
Mark wore a black suit and he looked serious as he
took his seat on the bench. A
prison officer sat beside him; a human buffer
to remind those gathered of his changed circumstances.
Savannah was last to take her place. She smiled at familiar faces as she waited along with everyone else for the trial
to
begin.

Suddenly a ripple of excitement went
around the room. Detective James Leary
took the stand to run through t
he familiar facts of the case. “
Neither of the accused has ever come to the attention of the la
w before. Legislation has not
changed since the nineteenth
century and while there are
few simi
lar cases a sample of those which
have passed through
the courts in recent times
receive
d
sentences of about seven to t
en years. Mr. McNamara had intended
to kill three people so should be looking
at consecutive terms for each.”

Then the victim impact statement from
Penelope, Rebecca and Shona was
read out.

“
We have not suffered any loss of earning
s
or physical injuries but our live
s have been changed forever. This
incident has caused significant changes in our lives. The notion that we were made the subject of a contract to kill has affected us socially and emotionally. The degree of planning and the nature of th
e contract have
exasperated the situation for us. We have become more self-conscious and are now constantly looking over our shoulders and are ill at ease. The crime has impacted on our respective social and business lives. We are not as confident as we were and we feel that the respect which had existed among our peers in our business dealings is not the same. We cannot understand how we were propelled from our normal daily lives into such a drama and shudder at the realisation
that had the plan been successful
we could have been poisoned to death. We believe it will take a long time before we
can put the incident behind us.”

Fin
ally it was time for Mark
to hear his fate. He stood facing the bench, one hand nervously playin
g
with the middle button of his jacket. There was barely a flicker of emotion as he learnt that he would be spending the next seven years in jail. He sat down heavily while Savannah stood to hear her sentence. She w
asn't smiling as the judge deli
v
ered her punishment. The maximum
sentence for extortion was fourteen years an
d she had already heard that her
demands with a threat of death were considered serious by the court. However, she too received seven years.

The judge got up to leave and the court rose with him, emptying quickly now the end was known. The press poured into the hall to separate and chase the various reactions.

“
Mr. McNamara wi
ll be fighting his conviction,” Mark's barrister stated. “
There will definitely be
an appeal. The truth will out.”

The game was finally over for Mark McNamara. He was found out and convicted. His conni
ving, heartless plotting and pl
an
n
ing, which had been driven by greed, was transparent and the jury saw right through it. At the end of a pulsating trial, Mark and Savannah were led away to prison where they would be forced to pay for their greed through prison terms. However, it was those they left behind who had to live with the devastation. Inn
oc
ent lives were ruined.

Life would never be the same again for Christopher McNamara. He had changed from being an outgoing, popular young man with lots of friends and a great social life to a reclusive, devastated boy who rarely left his home. When the allegations against his father emerged he was inconsolable and his studies were affected. His whole life was ruined as the effect of his father's deviousness took hold.

Mark’s
actions created havoc and heartbreak for Rebecca too. She gave him her heart but only got evil deceit in return. They built a good life together and shared a lavish lifestyle but he threw it all back in her face. Not
in
her wildest dreams did she ever believe that her husband was capable of plotti
ng anything so sinister. She
could hardly comprehend how he had openly discussed various methods of killing her and the other two women. However, their lives came in the way of his needs and his obsession with money. The language he used in email after email made it seem as though it was just a job, another business deal, but one that involved three lives.

All this grief brought on by an evil man, who felt he had nothing to lose but everything to gain. Yet, in the face of being found out he continued to lie his way out, presenting a story ab
out being blackmailed by Henry Whitington-Smyth
. It became obvious that Henry was nothing more than a figment of Mark's wicked imagination. Why did he not just get a divorce and walk away from it all? No, Mark was gripped by greed and revenge. He wanted his old, prestigious life back and was prepared to stop at nothing to get it.

His ambition went too far and led to devastating consequences. His selfishness, thoughtlessness and lack of compassion for anyone but
himself destroyed everything
. Right up until the very end he firmly believed he was invincible but the bitte
r truth was eventually revealed
in harrowing detail. For now, Mark McNamara is paying the price of his actions, but will it
be the last we see of him or just
the beginning?