Unfaithful (49 page)

Privately, the police were pleased with the outcome and had always firmly believed that Mark was "
devils-revenge" and that he had planned everything.

Cold, callous, calculating, deceitful, ar
rogant, manipulative; the list was endless, but all were used to describe Mark McNamara over the course of the trial. However, in stark contrast, Mark had presented himself as being a doting father and a caring, compassionate husband who was innocently caught when he was set up by a blackmailer. He sat in the courtroom day after day, often smiling and whispering to his legal team and nodding in accordance with the various pieces of evidence which were presented in the case.

Anyone would have thought he was an angel; the handsome, charismatic businessman but his handsome face hid his ugly secrets. He confidently walked into court
on every one of the thirty mornings of the trial, carrying his file of notes and bottle of water and in the early days a supply of chewing gum which would keep him going throughout the day. He was always impeccably dressed in dark suits, either plain or pin-striped with white or blue shirts. He tried to portray himself as a devoted father and loving husband but ultimately after many months of investigations the Prosecution presented him as an evil, conniving man whose dark ambition was to rid the world of his wife and her two business partners. Mark had tried to claim that Rebecca's black moods had made her unbearable to live with but the police investigators said that he had one motive only; he wanted all three dead so he could get his hands on the money.

The police had trawled through computers, painstakingly investigated telephone records and interviewed dozens of people in a complex investigation. Given the bizarre, unpredictable nature of
the case, police did not leave a stone unturned and investigated every single lead which emerged. The jury agreed that Mark was not the man he claimed to be and did not believe his story that he had been blackmailed, which was reflected in their guilty verdict.

Chapter 19

He made it sound like love at first sight. "I remember noticing Rebecca that first day on campus. I didn't know her but something about her stuck in my mind. I knew we were meant to be together. It was almost like a premonition. It felt like
I had been waiting for her my entire life.”

Mark quickly asked around about the stunning brunette and decided that she was going t
o change his life. Her love promised access to the lifestyle he craved, not to mention the security which had been missing from most of his life. He was determined to hook Rebecca for himself.

Mark was born on
November 21st 1967 and was the only child of the late Stephen and Anne. He grew up in County Mayo and although he loved travelling overseas on holidays, he had a particular affection for parts of his native county, especially Keel Beach on Achill Island where he had indicated a desire to have his ashes scattered.

H
e was described by locals as a confident, self-assured teenager. His family was respectable and well-liked. His mother and aunt ran the local shop when he was a child and his father was a butcher who sang in the local choir. The family kept themselves to themselves. Mark did not move within a large group of friends, although this may have been a natural reaction to his situation at home; by the time he had reached his teens his parents’ marriage had floundered and his father had moved out of the family home.

He was i
nterested in music and reading and even at a young age he had expensive taste in clothes, saving every penny to spend in the more exclusive department stores. Keeping trim and looking well had been a priority throughout his life. He was an attractive, ambitious man with a great fondness for women, a fondness which was to get him into trouble throughout his marriage.

Mark moved to Dubl
in to get away from the arguments at home and pursue his studies at Dublin Institute of Technology and that’s where he met Rebecca. She was the answer to all his dreams. He painted his love for her like a fairytale. Mark spotted her one afternoon in the canteen and was immediately struck by the tall, pretty girl with the slightly aloof air. She was from a prominent Dublin family who never approved of her relationship with Mark. She was quite standoffish towards him at first but it didn't take long until she succumbed to his charms and they became an item.

They married a few months after they finished college and with help from Rebecca's parents they bought Cois Farraige which was loca
ted in the prestigious area of Dublin's south side. Mark proved himself to be a gifted photographer with a keen eye for detail and he gradually became one of Dublin's most sought-after photographers. They built up the business together and soon M&R Photography was providing them with a luxurious lifestyle which Mark made the most of.

He certainly played the part of the besotted, devoted husband very well, but
appearances were deceiving. He was easily bored and became full of his own importance, seeking an ego boost elsewhere. Rebecca trusted her husband implicitly and never even suspected a hint of an indiscretion until that fateful day when she discovered his secret mobile phone. She sought to punish him where she knew it would really hurt; his home and his business and in a cunning move, she tricked him into signing over his share of the assets to her.

Mark was k
een to make amends after his affairs had been discovered but the feeling wasn't mutual. Rebecca tried to work things out with him for the sake of their children but he had betrayed her on too grand a scale for her to trust him again. He'd been kind to her during her post-natal depression but the love was gone. The most she could offer him was a cordial friendship and even that was just for the sake of their children. She wanted a divorce but she hadn't felt strong enough to face it since the birth of baby Ethan.

Mark was
accustomed to living the high life, where holidays, boat trips, parties at five star hotels and friendships with wealthy people were the norm. He wanted everything back to the way it was before his affairs were discovered and he set out to find somebody who would get rid of his wife and her new business partners, once and for all.

Mark's domestic arrangements were subject to endless speculation over the long weeks of the trial. Everyone was aghast at his numerous affairs and delighted in the way that Rebecca had so calmly exacted her
revenge on her cheating husband but he was livid when he realised what she’d done. He’d never imagined her to be capable of such actions but it didn’t take him long to regroup. He was determined to find a way around the problem. No way was he going to be cast aside. No matter what he might have done, he didn’t deserve to lose his home, his business and his status in society. He’d worked too long and too hard for his achievements. He’d looked after himself in the past and he knew he could do it again; but this time he needed to take drastic measures.

The level of bitterness bubbling away inside him had turned his fairytale life with Rebecca into a ticking bomb. Sitting at his computer h
e took the first step that would his destroy his life and the lives of those around him. After some desultory internet surfing he opened a new email account which he assumed would offer him total anonymity.

He had a plan and all he needed was his
anonymous email account to put it into action. “Devils-revenge” seemed like the perfect email address to him and in the course of the trial it would become the byword for the more bizarre aspects of the case. Spurred on by his new-found anonymity he started searching for a final solution. The answer he hit upon would set into motion a plot that would have devastating consequences and there certainly would be no happily ever after for the object of his ambition as she sat alone in her apartment in France.

Mark searched the internet for an assassin and truly believed he had found one in Savannah Kingston. Many wondered why he had not hired a local hitman instead of travelling into the unknown. Was he foolish to think that his footprints on the web would not be traced?

However, police investigators never believed for a moment that it was a foolish plan. They said that Mark was well aware of what he was doing and if the pieces of his plan had fallen into place there would have been no solid evidence against him. If "assassin_hire" had disposed of the computers as she had been ordered to do, and carried out the hits as agreed, then the women would be in their graves. There probably would have been mountains of speculation and Mark would have been a prime suspect but there wouldn't have been any firm evidence to convict him and Savannah would have been long gone back to England, without any trace or link to him. Mark had arranged everything perfectly, or so he thought.

He
told investigating officers that he wasn't obsessed with money and that he wanted to get back with Rebecca because he loved her. He claimed that he was passionate about his photography and the money was simply a bonus but the police were cynical about his claims. He came across as an intelligent, articulate man in the witness box and in his letters to the Director of Public Prosecutions. His emails to “assassin_hire” were detailed and descriptive and ran into thousands of words. The level of detail and his inclination at times to treat "assassin_hire" almost like a pen-pal, allied to his allegations about Rebecca's treatment of him, could have presented him as a lonely, desperate man, who had been unfairly treated. Luckily, the jury saw right through him and didn’t show him any sympathy.

Mark had a big void in his life after Rebecca and he separated. His best friend was gone and he didn't have anyone else to conf
ide in. He claimed that Henry Whitington-Smyth became like a pen-pal and he started to divulge personal information to him. He even presented detailed information to police on a visit he claimed that Henry had made to Dublin. He said they had gone on a trip around Dublin’s coast and he had showed him the sights before spending some time in his home. Apparently, Henry had thought Cois Farraige was unique and was impressed with the picturesque surroundings. Mark told police that Henry said he would do well in a divorce or in the event of Rebecca's death but he had insisted that he was only interested in his home and having a reasonable income if anything were to happen to her.

However, police investiga
tors did not believe the Henry Whitington-Smyth story and said it was all concocted by Mark who was desperate to retain his innocence. Mark accepted that he had been stupid for divulging personal information to Henry, which he said had gotten him into the mess, but said that apart from that he had lived his life to the best of his ability. He described himself as being family-oriented and that he felt deeply for others but the jury didn’t fall for his act.

One word that came up several
times during the trial in reference to Mark was "manipulative." He was accused by the Prosecution of being manipulative by smiling at the jury and his letters to the Director of Public Prosecutions were also criticised. He claimed in his letters that he had reached breaking point and had even contemplated suicide after he was questioned by police. He insisted that someone was setting him up for their own financial gain, but investigators put his insinuations down to his wild imagination.

It became more and more apparent as
time wore on that Mark was actually beginning to believe his own lies; such was the conviction with which he told his stories. This was a man who claimed he loved his wife, yet was adamant that she would die and had calmly discussed possible causes of death; to include suicide or natural causes, with "assassin_hire." He had coldly insisted that it was imperative that her death did not look like a hit.

Who believed his lies? He didn't have any friends to call upon in the court. Everyone had turned against him when the magnitude of what he had plotted and planned had been revealed. There was no
friend, neighbour or family that he could confide in.

When Mark set out to put a premature end to the women
’s lives he was gripped by determination and consumed by greed. He thought he had struck gold when he met Rebecca all those years ago; the young woman from a wealthy family, who was set to inherit millions and believed he was invincible when he set about his evil plot to get his hands on everything.

The ambitious, charming Mark McNamara
had, over the years, transformed into a bitter and twisted man who was dramatically caught out in the end. His lavish lifestyle was replaced by an unenviable life behind bars and his dreams of becoming a multi-millionaire were well and truly dead.

Chapter 20

Savannah Kingston was a charmer; there was no doubt about it. Anyone who had followed the trial could see that the girl from a rough part of Birmingham had grown into a beautiful, charming young woman, ready with a smile or a quick word for anyone. Each day, she turned up at the court in the blue and white prison van which brought the most hardened criminals to face the courts. The judge had refused her bail application as she was considered too big a flight risk. Every morning she walked the gamut of photographers who were standing outside the side-gate to the court, which was a more practical entrance for those in custody rather than the fortress-like main gates. She treated the paparazzi with a flirtatious, nonchalant disregard and laughed coquettishly as she shared a joke with a prison guard escort. Often she would be smiling in her newspaper photograph, which was unusual for someone in her position. She even charmed her cell mates in prison, giving everyone advice on card games where she would give them the benefit of her gambling expertise.