Saturday 6 February 2010

Eamonn Lillis murder trial: Media victims

AM I the only one to be amazed at how far the Irish Independent will go to milk the story around the murder trial of Eamonn Lillis, found guilty this week of bludgeoning with a brick his wealthy wife, a former model and James Bond movie star, at home in the upmarket County Dublin suburb of Howth?

Celine Cawley (46) appeared with Roger Moore in the 1985 James Bond movie A View To Kill.


Her husband has been sentenced to six years and 11 months in prison for her manslaughter. He was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter despite trying to cover up his crime with a string of lies to police investigators about her being attacked by an intruder and naming a former gardener as a possible suspect.

Behind the trappings of successful professional careers in the media, the couple's marriage was on the rocks and the 52-year-old Eamonn Lillis had embarked on an affair with a beauty therapist 20 years younger.

Admittedly, it's a real life and death story that will undoubtedly be made into a TV drama but was it really necessary for the Irish Independent today to go to the home town of Lillis's young lover, highlight who her siblings are and where they are working, and look to local councillors for a comment on the case?

As even the piece by Barry Duggan all but admits in a quote from one neighbour, being a mistress is not a crime and being a relative of someone unwittingly caught up in a murder trial is not a crime.

What would journalists think if people aggrieved by their reporting took to highlighting all their relatives' backgrounds in responses to false or intrusive reporting?

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