AN IRISH soldier has told the trial of an Ennis woman and a former Las Vegas poker dealer charged with conspiring to kill the woman's partner and his two sons that he contacted a website advertising contract killings because he thought it was a joke.
Pte Brian Buckley told Una Ní Raifeartaigh, prosecuting, in the Central Criminal Court yesterday that he had found the site Hireahitman.us while searching for cheat codes for the Hitmancomputer game.
Sharon Collins (45), Kildysart Road, Ennis, Co Clare, and Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st, 2006, and September 26th, 2006. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to shoot the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard to cancel the contracts. He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money and then handling the stolen items.
Pte Buckley said he was using the computer at his mother's house in Ennis when he came across the website. It was top of the list of Google search results so he assumed it was the site he was looking for. He said the home page of the site made him think is was an internet prank.
"I saw a cartoon animation of a man with a gun. He was wearing a hat, sunglasses and had a pistol. It was a cartoon drawing."
Pte Buckley said he looked further into the website until he came to a kind of application form.
"Out of my own curiosity or my own stupidity, I decided to fill out the form."
Using the email address Judas69@gmail.com he filled out the form, giving a false telephone number and a false name, Will Buckimer.
He told defence counsel for Mr Eid, Mark Nichols, that there was no significance in either name and the number 69 meant nothing.Using the application form on the website he filled in fictitious skills.
He listed handgun, rifle, submachine gun, shotgun, sniper, heavy gun, heavy machine gun, grenades, basic booby traps and limited poisons. He told Ms Ní Raifeartaigh this was not a true answer, with the exception of rifle and grenades.
He said he made first contact with the website on July 29th, 2006, and received a reply from a Tony Luciano on August 10th.
The reply read: "I have a job for you if you are interested. Two males in Ireland and one in Spain. ASAP. Let us know. We will try and call you. Thanks. Tony Luciano."
Pte Buckley agreed that he had provided his mobile number but had never at any stage thought the website was serious. He said he "just wanted to see where it would go". On August 28th, he received another e-mail from Luciano.
"Please help us out for this. I need some strong poison. One of us will be in Shannon. We cannot shift this stuff for security reasons - you know that - so please help us out. Will pay and I will owe you favourite (sic). Thanks brother. Tony." Pte Buckley said that this e-mail made him feel uneasy and he decided to distance himself.
He received several phone calls from the man calling himself Tony Luciano but would not talk to him and kept telling him he had the wrong number.