| The Dream Solution
- Articles |
28/05/95
- Twisted sisters made my life hell
by gary jones chief crime reporter
News of the World
Two sisters at the centre of a sensational bride-murder case tried
to wreck the life of their best friend's wife, the news of the
world can reveal today. They plagued young mother debbie o'mahoney
and her children with a series of taunting and menacing phone
calls. "I won't ever forgive them," said a bitter debbie.
Lisa and michelle taylor spent 11 months behind bars before an
appeal court judge quashed their conviction for the 1991 murder
of newlywed alison shaughnessy. She was stabbed 54 times. Michelle
had been having an affair with 21-year-old alison's husband. John,
at the time of the killing in battersea, south london.
Now another sex triangle has brought the taylor family into new
conflict with the law. Michelle upset debbie with heartless telephone
jibes after a long affair with her common-law husband, bernard.
Debbie was able to fight back against those. She said: "Once
i screamed at her, 'you got sent away because you had an affair.
Now you've come out and you're at it again'." But she couldn't
cope when she picked up the phone night after night to sinister
silences.
"The calls made my skin creep," said debbie. "I
thought some lunatic killer was after me." She was stunned
when british telecom helped trace the silent calls to 21-year-old
lisa's home in brockley, south east london. Lisa admitted everything
when police confronted her.
"She must have known i'd be frightened," said debbie,
of basildon, essex. "The calls would wake the kids up crying.
They'd last for up to 20 minutes. It was sending me crazy."
Club doorman bernard had a passionate fling with michelle after
her release from prison in june, 1993.
He had been one of the leaders in a campaign to have the sisters'
conviction overturned, and stayed with them in their uncle's flat
after their appeal success. For months debbie had no idea he was
having an affair. She thought he wanted to spend time with the
sisters after working so hard to win their freedom.
But then michelle, 24, began her telephone jibes. "She kept
ringing me asking about my relationship with bernard," said
debbie. She added: "When bernard eventually came back home
she phoned me up and taunted me, saying 'we've been living together'.
It was then the calls really heated up. They came all the time.
It went on over six or seven months and sometimes three or four
times a week. "I'd get the calls in the early hours when
they knew bernard was working and i was alone with the children.
It affected my life really badly.
"Sometimes there was complete silence and other times i could
hear footsteps and voices from the distance. Occasionally i could
hear breathing. It was terrifying." Michelle started her
romance with bernard through dozens of letters she sent him from
her cell in holloway prison.
In one sent after she was freed she wrote: "I felt so close
with you last night. It felt so nice to just be able to cuddle
you. I have missed you so much since you went and last night just
felt like heaven to me while i was cuddling you."
In others, she speaks of her hatred for ex-lover john shaughnessy.
Bernard now regrets devoting so much time to campaigning for the
sisters' release.
He admits: "I shouldn't have got so involved. I became infatuated
with michelle and wasn't thinking "properly." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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