The Dream Solution
Bernard O'Mahoney with Mick McGovern
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Synopsis
'I hate Alison, the unwashed bitch. My Dream solution would be for Alison to disappear as if she never existed and then maybe i could give everything to the man i love.'

These words of hate scribbled in a diary helped convict sisters Michelle and Lisa Taylor of the savage murder of newly wed Alison Shaughnessy.

Alison had been stabbed 54 times during a frenzied attack in her own home. At their sensational trial the prosecution alleged that 21-year-old Michelle Taylor who had been having an affair with Alison's husband - had murdered Alison in a jealous rage and that she was aided in her brutal attack by her 18-year-old sister Lisa.

The case was reported in the tabloid press under lurid headlines such as Love Crazy Mistress Butchered Rival Wife. The jury found the Taylor sisters guilty of murder Incredibly, having served less than one year of their sentences, the Taylor sisters were freed thanks in part to a exhaustive campaign by Bernard O'Mahoney.

Bernard, having witnessed their trial, was convinced that a major miscarriage of justice had occurred and with his help their appeal was successful. Following their release O'Mahoney sat down with the sisters to write a book about their ordeal It was at this time that he and Michelle Taylor began a passionate affair.

He first became suspicious when she began behaving towards him in the obsessive way the prosecution alleged she had behaved towards her former lover, Alison's husband.

As O'Mahoney tried to extricate himself from the affair he stumbled across an incriminating letter that could mean only one thing: Michelle Taylor was guilty of Alison's murder. Following a heated confrontation she finally broke down and confessed her guilt.

The sisters fought for years in the high court to gag O'Mahoney. But in a legal battle almost as dramatic as the one that saw the sisters freed, O'Mahoney won the case. The Dream Solution tells the story of his two crusades - the first to prove the sisters' innocence, the second to be allowed to tell the world of their guilt.

At a time when a series of high-profile cases have undermined public confidence in the judicial system, this book will provide incontrovertible proof of a different sort of miscarriage of justice - one in which the guilty have been set free.

AUTHORS

Bernard O'Mahoney was born in Dunstable in 1960. He served for three years in the army and saw a tour of duty in Northern Ireland's so-called 'bandit country' when republicans were dying on hunger strike.

His book abou hat period, Soldier of the Queen (also written with Mick McGovern), was published by Brandon books in 2000. Since then he has travelled extensively and worked in the building and security industries.

Renouncing a criminal past, he wrote about his experiences of the dark side of the nightclub world in the best-selling So This ls Ecstasy?,published in 1997 by Mainstream. This was updated and reprinted in 2000 under the title Essex Boys to coincide with the release of the film of the same name.

Mick McGoven was born in London in 1962. After studying Politics at Leicester University, he trained as a journalist on the Wolverhampton Express and Star, then worked as a casual reporter on the current-affairs TV programme This Week.

Since then he has made documentaries, written for The Observer and New Statesman, and spent a period in the BBC's Drama Serials Department. He was co-author of Killing Rage - the autobiography of former IRA supergrass Eamon Collins - published by Granta Books in 1997, (Eamon Collins was subsequently murdered by the IRA.) He was also co-author of Soldier of the Queen with Bernard O'Mahoney.