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05/09/01 - Rosie's killer to sue author
Taken from Hartlepool
Today
THE monster who murdered tragic toddler Rosie Palmer is to sue
the man who helped put him behind bars. Anger has greeted the
news that Shaun Armstrong wants to claim £15,000 in damages
from an author to whom he allegedly confessed the crime.
MONSTER:
Shaun Armstrong |
Armstrong
s stance has sent shockwaves around the tight-knit Headland
community where three-year-old Rosie lived before her 1994 death.
Hartlepool councillor Kevin Kelly, a former member of the Rosie
Palmer Foundation, said: This is disgusting and immoral. Armstrong
should be left to rot in jail, not be allowed to gain financially
from his crime.
East Durham-born Armstrong, 39, claims that letters he wrote
to Bernard O Mahoney were obtained under false pretences and
his privacy was breached when they were later handed to the
police. Mr O Mahoney gained Armstrong s confidence by pretending
to be a woman in dozens of letters written between the two while
the killer was on remand.
The correspondence contained details of Armstrong s childhood
as well as gruesome descriptions of Rosie s killing. One letter,
written just before Armstrong confessed to the murder, states:
Yes I m responsible for the crime but please don t tell anybody.
Rosie was abducted and murdered on June 30, 1994, after she
went to buy an ice lolly just yards from her home in the Headland
s Henrietta Street. Three days later, her battered and sexually
abused body was found in a bin-liner in Armstrong s first floor
flat in nearby Frederic Street.
Armstrong confessed to murder just minutes before he was to
face trial at Leeds Crown Court in July 1995. He was then sentenced
to life in Durham s top security Frankland Prison. During his
time on remand, Armstrong built up a pen friendship with Mr
O Mahoney after the Peterborough resident duped the killer into
believing he was corresponding with a woman called Laurna Jane
Stevens.
Between 100 and 150 letters were passed between the two some
detailing sickening aspects of Armstrong s crime. But late last
year, Mr O Mahoney, who was initially working on behalf of a
national newspaper, wrote to Armstrong again revealing his true
identity and of his intentions to publish the letters in a book
he plans to write.
Rosie
Palmer |
Today,
Mr O Mahoney, 41, said Armstrong s plans to sue him had left
him shocked and disgusted. When you are sent to prison, you
lose your liberty and I don t think an animal such as Armstrong
is entitled to confidence or privacy, he said. He confessed
through his own free will to an horrific crime yet now he s
saying I breached his confidence by telling the police.
If he wins this case, surely that tells me that I should have
kept my mouth shut - that s absurd. I d cut my throat rather
than pay him 15p let alone £15,000. I d rather go to prison
than pay him. Mr O Mahoney received the writ at his home yesterday
after it was prepared by Armstrong s solicitors in Liverpool.
It alleges that Mr O Mahoney breached Armstrong s right to confidentiality
and violated his right to respect for his private life. It is
unclear whether the Easington-born murderer is using taxpayers
money to fund his claim.
Armstrong s solicitor, Elkan Armstrong, was unavailable this
morning but is reported to have said: The claim is not purely
about damages, more about the fact that the wants the letters
back and he doesn t want a book written about him. I d say he
is fairly confident he will succeed. They re his letters after
all and this guy pretended to be a woman to get them and shouldn
t have. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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