Georgina Eager wanted a new job, but the man who employed her is now on trial for her brutal murder, writes Chris Dooley in London
In the summer of 2002, Georgina Eager made a decision that within a year was to cost her her life. At the time, the 27-year-old from the townland of Trudder Bridge, near Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, seemed to have everything going for her.
The eldest of four daughters in a close-knit family, she lived in what her father described as a "nice flat" in Blackrock on the southside of Dublin. She had a boyfriend, Niall O'Kelly, whom she had met at an office party the previous Christmas.
She had a degree in European Studies, had lived in Paris for a time, and had fluent French. And she had a job she liked, working as a make-up artist at Brown Thomas on Grafton Street.
There was nothing unusual, however, in her deciding that summer to give up the job without having an alternative in place. That was Georgina, was how members of her family put it this week, giving evidence at the trial of the man accused of her murder.
"She just wanted a change. She loved changing jobs; she loved changes in her life," her younger sister and "best friend" Brenda, now 28, told the jury of eight men and four women at the Inner London Crown Court.
Georgina's first step, on leaving Brown Thomas, was to try to set up her own business in make-up artistry. She advertised her services in a weddings journal, but the venture did not take off.
A job advertisement in another journal then caught her eye: it was for a receptionist at an alternative therapies clinic in Walkinstown, Dublin, run by Christopher Newman, an Indian-born British national who practised under the name Prof Saph Dean and was also known as David Dean.
The young Wicklow woman had an interest in complementary medicine and had already taken a number of courses. She successfully applied for the job.
It was a turn of events which was to have disastrous consequences. About 10 months after she joined the clinic, Georgina's blood-spattered body was found in the bedroom of her flat on St Peter's Road, next door to the clinic where she worked for Newman.
She had been stabbed more than 20 times in the face, neck, chest and back and had also received multiple "defensive" cuts to her left arm and hands, sustained as she tried to fend off her attacker.
It is "common ground", as prosecuting counsel Michael Birnbaum QC put it to the jury, that Newman killed her. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, however, and will say he acted in self- defence.
Although Georgina never told members of her family directly, there is no doubt that she and Newman were having a relationship that went beyond the normal employer-employee boundaries. At least two of her sisters and her mother, Sylvia, knew deep down at the time that this was the case.
Brenda recalled how, after a Saturday night out with Georgina, "the Professor", as her sister called him, would phone her on the Sunday morning "checking up on her". He would ask for Brenda to be put on the phone to ensure that Georgina had stayed with her.
She had once asked her sister "indirectly" if she was having a relationship with the Professor, but Georgina replied: "Ah no, Bren." Another sister, Sylvia (24), told how, during Christmas of 2002, Georgina showed her a piece of jewellery she had been given. "I think it was a bracelet," she told the court. "I said 'where did you get that?' and she said 'from the Professor'. I just said 'oh right'." Sylvia thought there was something going on between Georgina and the Professor, but she never raised the matter with her sister.
Sylvia Eager, who described her relationship with Georgina as more like that of friends than mother and daughter, said Georgina did "kind of" tell her about her involvement with the Professor. "She said 'he is 61' and I said 'it doesn't matter what age he is as long as he's good to you'. I didn't know anything about him." The nature of Newman's relationship with Georgina is of more than passing interest because it impinges on questions of motivation and what it was that provoked the row between the two that preceded Georgina's violent death in the early hours of May 22nd, 2003.
Georgina's family were adamant in court this week that she had decided to give up her job at the clinic and was attempting to disengage from her relationship with Newman when he killed her. Newman's barrister claimed that in fact it was his client's decision to change his mind about leaving all of his assets to Georgina that caused the falling-out.
The court had heard evidence that Newman drew up an affidavit and later a will nominating Georgina as the sole inheritor of all his property including the clinic and adjoining house, although there was subsequent evidence - not yet fully teased out - that he owned neither property. While the precise nature of the relationship and how it developed may never be known, what is clear is that within a short time of joining the clinic Georgina became totally immersed in her work and also developed a huge admiration for Newman's abilities.
Her duties expanded well beyond that of receptionist and she became involved in the various treatments offered by the clinic, such as colonic irrigation. She clearly loved the work.
"She would say 'I did 10 colonics today' and I would say 'that's disgusting'," her sister, Sylvia, told the court.
Georgina remained close to her family but became more detached than she had been in the past. They saw her less frequently and when family members phoned she would be too busy to talk and would have to call them back. She had planned, however, to go to France on holidays with two of her sisters, Sylvia and Catherine, in June 2003 - the month after she was killed.
"We were looking forward to it because we had been so close," said Sylvia. "My sisters were best friends and we felt we hadn't been close for a few months and wanted to get things back to the way they used to be. There had been something strange going on." Asked what she meant by this, she said simply that the sisters had not been in as much contact as usual.
While the house the family had rented in the south of France was available for a month, Georgina had said she could go for only two weeks because she had to get back to the clinic. Andrew Smiler, Newman's barrister, repeatedly used this fact to challenge the family's assertion that she wanted to leave the clinic.
Her doubts about both her work there and her relationship are set out, however, in letters by Georgina to her "guardian angels", some of which have been read in court. In one she expresses a wish to leave Newman but also appears to be tortured by self-doubt and a feeling of disloyalty.
"I want him to be happy. I'm becoming a burden to him. How can he be happy when I sit and moan about doing colonics when he does everything for me? He has shown me a different life, a new financial situation and a very open heart," she wrote.
Her family appeared unfazed about the letters when asked about them in court. Georgina had always been a spiritual person, they said. Smiler put it less kindly. Did he know that his daughter had had "strange beliefs", he asked her father, George.
There was nothing strange about them, was the reply. Georgina had believed in angels, and that was all there was to it.
George, who spoke in a calm, quiet voice, had also enjoyed a close relationship with Georgina. They would chat about everything; occasionally, when passing by a bank, he would put €50 or €60 into her credit card account, "as a little surprise".
He was the first witness to recall the events of the night of May 21st and May 22nd, 2003, surrounding Georgina's death. What is known is that she and Newman were seen having an argument outside the clinic in Walkinstown, and a distressed-sounding Georgina told her family in Wicklow by phone that she wanted to come home.
Although she did phone later to say everything wasall right, she did set out for Wicklow in the early hours of May 22nd. Newman went to a casino where he gambled, and lost €1,900 while simultaneously calling Georgina on her mobile.
Telephone records show that she was almost home when she turned around and went back to Walkinstown.
Later the same day, Newman withdrew €1,200 from bank accounts in Georgina's name and went to London, where he was arrested that night after being spotted drinking champagne in a taxicab, drunk and behaving erratically. Police there phoned Georgina's number, which they found stored on Newman's phone, only to have it answered by gardaí who had just found her body.
The State pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, told the court that whoever killed her appeared to have medical or anatomical knowledge, because they had seemingly targeted an area of the upper spine and this was unprecedented in her experience. It was also clear she had put up a struggle.
Newman is being tried in London under UK legislation that allows a British national to be tried there for an offence allegedly committed in another jurisdiction.
The Wicklow Labour TD, Liz McManus, who has questioned why he was not extradited to Ireland, attended three days of the trial this week with Georgina's family.
Amanda Bane, Irish community officer with the Irish Embassy in London, has also attended.
The trial is expected to continue at least until the end of August.