Unfaithful (50 page)

Who was this magnetic woman who seemed to be able to manipulate a grown man into taking leave of his senses? Could this petite, almost ethereal
-looking woman really be the main architect of a murderous plot? Savannah Kingston was born in Birmingham to Gregg and Elaine Kingston. She was the couple's first child but her mother had almost died during her birth and Savannah felt that her parents had it in for her right from the start. According to Savannah, her father never forgave her for almost killing her mother and her mother exacted an almost daily revenge by beating her with a fresh thin branch which was cut from the tall oak tree standing outside the family home. She told a psychologist that the only family member who had ever shown her any sort of love was her paternal grandmother and she was devastated when she passed away.

Savannah often jo
ked that she wanted Amanda Seyfried to play her in the movie of the trial but the character that was painted by her barrister was more bumbling villain than sexy femme fatale. The plot which had led her to the Irish court system could have been brilliant in its execution if greed had not gotten in her way.

Savannah may have believed herself to be a convincing gangster but her involvement in organised crime had only laste
d for two outings, both of which had ended in arrest. She was no career criminal and although she liked to talk the talk she didn’t really walk the walk. If she had continued talking she may have still had a job in the glamorous world of London’s nightlife rather than earning her criminal record in an Irish prison.

Savannah worked as a nightclub hostess at one of the busiest and most prestigious nightclubs in London. She kept a fairly low profile at work, making sure her clients were well taken care of and their every need catered for. She was surr
ounded by money and power and it must have been tempting. After all, her job paid a paltry sum which was barely above minimum wage, although it wasn’t the take-home pay that made working in the nightclub so worthwhile; it was the tips. She could make hundreds of pounds in just one night. Savannah boasted to police that she could earn up to one hundred thousand pounds a year from her wealthy clientele; in the dark underworld of London’s nightlife, people showed their gratitude to the person who helped their night run smoothly.

However, while the money was good, Savannah had a problem keeping it. She imagined herself living in the big league and craved the
lifestyle that went with it; top of the range cars, expensive jewellery and an apartment in a fashionable area meant she hardly any money left over. It seemed to her that her money evaporated and the idea of a scheme that would provide a steady flow of cash, or better still, a generous tax free injection seemed ever more attractive to her. As her finances started to dwindle she started looking for an alternative and so Assassin for Hire was born.

Daniel Wil
liam was living in London when he met Savannah Kingston. He was a frequent weekend visitor to the nightclub where she was hostess. It didn't take long for the two to strike up a friendship. Savannah gave him the full benefit of her charm and they would talk for hours, sharing experiences and laughing at each others' jokes. Their flirting quickly developed into a passionate relationship which would lead them both into taking ever more ludicrous risks until they ended up in prison. It was a union of two people who appealed to the other's worst character traits. Everyone who knew Daniel thought that Savannah was a bad influence. It didn’t take long for him to stop spending time with his old friends and start flashing his cash around. It was obvious that Savannah was the driving force behind his new-found recklessness.

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 officers, 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 Ireland 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 stiletto 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 more sinister than a mere holiday. It was the State's case that she operated the assassin website and had conspired with Mark McNamara via email to murder the three women. However, while the jury convicted her of demanding money from Penelope 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 addresses 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 police 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-serving 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. Look who has been here all along; three 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 to 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 splashed 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 company 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 from the lack of regular trimming but Mark was in high spirits as he sat in the courtroom. His belief in his own innocence remained unwavering and he was confident 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 himself 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 appearance 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 deducted. There was even some speculation 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 press 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 the familiar facts of the case. “Neither of the accused has ever come to the attention of the law before. Legislation has not changed since the nineteenth century and while there are few similar cases a sample of those which have passed through the courts in recent times received sentences of about seven to ten 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 earnings or physical injuries but our lives 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 the 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 playing 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 wasn't smiling as the judge delivered her punishment. The maximum sentence for extortion was fourteen years and 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 will 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 planning, 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. Innocent 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.