09/08/91 - Statement Of John Patrick Shaughnessy

Statement Of John Patrick Shaughnessy
Address:
Age / Date Of Birth: 29 07121961
Occupation: Assistant Purchasing Manager

This Statement, Consisting Of 11 Pages Each Signed By Me, Is True To The Best Of My Knowledge And Belief And I Make It Knowing That, If It Is Tendered In Evidence, I Shall Be Liable To Prosecution If I Have Wilfully Stated In It Anything Which I Know To Be False Or Do Not Believe To Be True.

Date 090891
Signed John Shaughnessy
Signature Witnessed By Dc Gallagher

Further To My Statements Dated 040691, 060691, 110691 And 130691, I Would Like To Add More Details, I Was Born In Dublin, Ireland On 071261, I Am The Second Youngest Of Eleven Children, My Mother's Names Florrie And Her Maiden Name Was Burke, My Father Is Tom Shaughnessy And Is Now Retired, Having Worked For The Local County Council And Bord-Na-Mona.

I Have Four Brothers, Michael, Tommy, Gerry And Danny And Six Sisters, Mary, Nuala, Ann (Deceased) Florrie, Breada And Margaret. At This Time All My Family Lived At Ardnamullagh, Ballintuber, Co Roscommon, But Due To Complications With My Birth, I Was Born In Hollis Street Hospital In Dublin, I Actually Remained In Hospital For About Six Months After I Was Born.

I Was Also Baptised In Dublin, I Attended St Brigids Primary School In Ballintuber Until About The Age Of Eleven And Then Attended The Technical School In Castlerea, I Left There Aged 18 Years With No Formal Qualifications.

Almost Immediately After Leaving School I Obtained Employment With Roscommon County Council Doing A Variety Of Jobs From Community Work To General Labouring, I Worked With The County Council For About Eight Months In Total. After This I Worked For Three Years With A Steel Company On The Outskirts Of Roscommon Town Called "Stainless Steel".

Whilst Employed There I Operated Various Machines. The Company Had Been Running For About Eight Or Nine Years And Was Doing Well But People Who Had Been Employed There Since It Opened Began To Go On Strike For The Slightest Thing And The Company, Which Was Based In Manchester Closed The Plant Down As A Result.

This Happened When I Was Aged 21, I Then Got A Job As A Shop Assistant In Tom Flynn's Grocery Shop In Castlerea. During The Time I Was Employed At The Steel Company I Was Going Out With A Local Girl Called Stella Hurley Who Lived In Ballinlough Co Roscommon, This Relationship Lasted About 1 1/2 Years.

Having Worked About 10 Months Or So In Tom Flynns And Whilst Still Going Out With Stella, I Decided To Move To Leeds, This Would Have Been In 000985. Stella Had Already Moved To Leeds About Two Months Before This And Was Staying With Her Aunt. When I Moved To Leeds I Rented A Room In A Private House Near Riviera Gardens But I Can't Remember The Exact Address Now.

About A Week After Arriving In Leeds I Got A Job In Burtons Warehouse In Hudson Road Mills And Whilst There I Did Various Jobs, From General Warehouse Man To Quality Control, I Worked There For About 3 Months Until 001285. During This Time I Continued My Relationship With Stella.

After Christmas 1985 As A Result Of A Phone Call From My Cousin Joe O'shaughnessy, I Moved To The Crouch Hill Area Of London And Stayed With Joe. Joe Owned A Florists Shop On Bayliss Road, Waterloo And Because Of Staff Problems He Wanted Me To Work For Him, Both In The Shop And 'out On The Road' Doing Deliveries And Hotel Contracts.

I Worked There From January Until 000686 And During This Time I Continued To Live At Joes. Around 000486 My Relationship With Stella Ended As I Intended Staying In London And She Was Going Back To Dublin.

However We Still Remain Good Friends To This Day, During Our Relationship We Did Sleep Together, During My Employment There I Got To Know Ellie And Andy Who Owned The Hairdressers Next Door To Joe's Shop, Their Surname Is Greek And I Can't Remember It Now, Joe Has Actually Sold His Shop Now And Moved Back To Ireland.

In 000686 I Decided To Return To Ireland For A Few Months, I Went Home To Roscommon And Shortly After I Got Back I Went To 'midas' Nightclub In Ballyhaunis In Co Mayo, This Nightclub Is Actually Owned By A Friend Of Mine Paul Claffey, Another Friend Of Mine Chris Carrol And Paul Ran A Radio Station From The Nightclub.

I Had An Idea Of Making Some Money For Myself By Buying Tickets For Two Forthcoming Rock Concerts In Dublin And Cork And Organising Coaches Etc For Them, I Mentioned This To Chris And He Agreed To Help Me Out By Advertising The Fact That Tickets Etc, Could Be Bought From Me On The Radio, This Was All Arranged And The Tickets Were Sold From The Radio Station.

Whilst I Was At The Radio Station Which Is Called 'mid West' Radio, I Met A Girl Called Kathy Mckeon. She Came Along To The Radio Station To Buy Tickets For The Cork Concert And We Got Chatting, I Found Out That She Was From New York And Was On A Three Week Holiday In Ireland.

As A Result Of Our Conversation A Group Of Us Met In A Pub And A Few Days After That I Met Her Again And Asked Her Out. We Went To The Concert And She Had Only About A Week Or So Of Her Holiday Left. We Had A Brief Relationship During This Week And On Two Occasions We Touched Each Other Intimately But We Never Actually Had Full Sexual Intercourse.

After Kathy Went Back To America We Still Kept In Touch And Remain Good Friends To This Day. Alison Knew About Kathy And Read The Letters. She Didn't Mind And In Fact Wanted To Meet Her, Kathy Has Subsequently Been Over In London Around 000389 And Stayed Just Under A Week At The Churchill Clinic Where I Was Then Working.

Kathy Stayed In A Room There With A Girl Called Christina Murray, At My Request. Whilst Kathy Was There We Did Not Rekindle Our Relationship; It Was Purely Platonic. I Was In Fact Going Out With Alison At This Time. Kathy Did Not Meet Alison During This Time.

There Was One Night When Alison Visited Me But Kathy Had Gone Out For A Drink With Another Member Of Staff. Having Been In Ireland From 000686 I Returned To London In 000986 And Lived With My Cousin Joe Again. Through My Friendship With Ellie And Andy Who Owned The Hairdressers Beside Joe's Shop, I Had Got To Know Pauline Gross.

And Having Been Back In London About Three Weeks ( 000986 ) I Got A Phone Call From Pauline Who Told Me There Was Job For A Part Time Porter Going At The Churchill Clinic In Lambeth Road Where Pauline Worked As A Receptionist And In Fact Still Does. I Subsequently Applied For And Got The Job.

I Started In 000986 And Towards The End Of 001086 Or Thereabouts I Moved Into 60 Lambeth Road, Se1 Which Is Accommodation For Staff Owned By The Churchill Clinic, I Occupied The Rear First Floor Room At That Address. During My Employment At The Clinic I Was A Porter, Worked In Cssd, In Theatre, Which Is A Sterilisation Area.

Then General Work In Stores And Then I Worked In The Purchasing Department. Finally In 001190 I Became Assistant Purchasing Manager, The Post Which I Currently Hold, In Which I Earn £10,500 A Year. About 4 Years Ago I Became Aware That The Gardening And Flower Arranging Contract At The Hospital Was Up For Tender And As I Lived In.

And Had A Lot Of Free Time, I Decided To Apply For It, I Actually Got The Job, The Job Entailed Keeping The Flower Beds Around The Hospital And Also Arranging Flower Displays Around The Hospital Interior. I Started Getting £120 Per Month For This Work Which Was Paid To Me By Cheque From The Clinic.

The Work Included In The Summer Months The Maintenance Of The Flower Beds And All Year Through The Purchasing Of Cut Flowers And The Arranging And Distribution Of Then Throughout The Hospital. I Always Bought The Cut Flowers On A Monday Evening From A Flower Stall Owned By Buster Edwards Under The Bridge At Waterloo.

I Used To Pay For These Flowers By My Own Personal Cheques And I Would Submit The Receipt To The Clinic Who Would Then Reimburse Me, Originally By Cheque But Due To Changes In The Accounts System, By Cash From Petty Cash. I Met My Wife Alison, Whose Maiden Name Was Blackmore, In The Archway Tavern, Archway In 001086.

Between My Brief Relationship With Kathy Until Meeting Alison, I Did Not Have Any Other Girlfriends, On The Night I Met Alison I Had Gone To The Archway Tavern For A Drink On My Own. The Pub Is Always Packed And This In Fact Makes It Easy To Get Talking To People As Everyone Is Trying To Squeeze Past Other People And Bumping Into Each Other.

I Can't Remember How It Happened But Just Before Closing Time That Night I Had Got Chatting To Alison And A Friend Of Hers Called Michelle ( I Can't Remember Her Surname ). Michelle Has Since Moved To Australia, It Was Michelle Who Did Most Of The Talking And Alison Struck Me As Being Quiet And Shy And Being A Pleasant Person.

After Closing Time They Both Went Home And I Got On The Bus And Went Back To My Room At The Clinic. A Couple Of Weeks Later I Was Again On My Own In The Archway Tavern And I Remember I Met A Few People From Ireland There, One Of Them Was Called Mike Grogan, After I Had Parted Company With Then I Met Alison Again As She Was Going To The Ladies.

She Stopped And Chatted To Me And I Remember Her Commenting On My Memory At Being Able To Remember Her Name. We Chatted For A While And She Went To The Ladies, A Short Time Later Alison Came Back With Her Friend Michelle And We All Had A Chat.

After Closing Time The Three Of Us Went On To A Place Called Noreens In The Holloway Road Where We Could Still Get A Drink, I Remember Alison Was Drinking Coke. She Drank A Lot Of Coke, We Stayed There Until About 0130. During The Evening We Had Exchanged Telephone Numbers And I Remember That When I Found Out That She Was Only 16 I Was Surprised.

And I Remember That Alison Said "Age Was Not Everything.' When We Left The Pub Alison And Michelle Got A Cab Home And I Got A Night Bus Back To The Clinic. After That Night We Contacted Each Other And A Steady Relationship Developed. On Average We Would See Each Other Usually Midweek, Possibly On A Wednesday And Also At The Weekends.

As I Stated In A Previous Statement Alison Was Born On 071169, She Was Born In North London. Her Father's Name Is Bobby And Her Mother's Name Is Breada ( Nee Norris ). Both Bobby And Breada Are Originally From Around Piltown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland And Live At The Address Known To The Police. Alison Has Two Brothers, Robert And Richard And A Sister Called Susan.

From What I Know Of Alison's Past She Attended A Catholic School And Left Aged 16. In Fact I Believe She Had Just Started Work At Barclays Bank In The Strand When I Met Her. She Had Been To An All Girls School And Had Also Done Irish Dancing At The Maguire School Of Dancing Which I Believe Is Somewhere Around Crouch End.

Certainly After We Got Married She Enjoyed Embroidery, Crafts, Watching Soap Operas On Tv And She Read A Lot. She Used To Read A Book Per Week And Once She Started Reading She Would Get Totally Engrossed In The Book, I Know She Had 0'levels But I Don't Know How Many Or In What Subjects, I Felt Alison Was Very Mature For Her Age And Although She Was Quite Shy I Thought She Was Easy To Talk To.

And Once You Got To Know Her She Was A Happy Type Of Person, Alison Used To Go On Holiday To Her Relations In Piltown, Co Kilkenny And She Loved Going Back There. She Actually Made Her First Communion In Piltown. She Used To Spend The Summer Over There Picking Vegetables And Fruit.

I Believe That Alison May Have Had One Or Two 'holiday Boyfriends' In Ireland But I Don't Know Any More Details About Them, As Far As I Know She Did Not Have Any Boyfriends Before Meeting Me And Was A Virgin When We Met, Before Getting Employment In Barclays Bank I Believe Alison Held A Few Short Term Jobs Which Were Really Only "Stop Gaps" Until She Got Into The Bank.

Alison Was A Very Caring And Kind Person. She Used To Give Her Clothes Away To Her Sister And My Nieces Even Though She Hadn't Worn Them That Often Herself, Alison Like Myself Was Religious And Was A Regular Church Goer. I Would Say That Alison Had At Times A Quick Temper But Would Never Hold A Grudge And Was Always Quick To Apologise.

Our Relationship Grew More Serious And After About Two Or Two And A Half Years Of Seeing Each Other, We Began To Talk About Getting Engaged And Married. I Told Alison That I Was Worried That Because She Had Not Had Any Real Boyfriends In The Past, It Might Be An Idea For Us To Break Up For A Time So That She Could Be Sure Of Her Feelings For Me Before She Made A Lifetime Committment.

Alison Totally Disagreed With This And We Came To A Compromise That We Would Not See Each Other So Often, At This Stage We Were Seeing Each Other About Three Times A Week So We Began Seeing Each Other Only Once Or Occasionally Twice A Week, But Within A Month We Were Back To Normal, This Was At Alison's Instigation, We Got Engaged In 000489 And A Month Or So Later We Set The Date Of The Wedding For 230690.

During The Time That Alison And I Were Seeing Each Other We Used To Go To Quite A Few Pop Concerts And Went For Days Out All Over The Country And We Went To Ireland For Holidays, Staying With Relatives And Friends Both In Roscommon And Kilkenny.

We Got On Very Well Together, We Did Have Arguments As All Couples Do But At No Time Either Before Or After Marriage Did I Ever Use Any Form Of Violence Towards Alison Nor Did She To Me For That Matter. Alison's Family Are A Very Close Family And Always Got On Well Together. This Was Even More The Case After We Got Married. Alison Was Very Selective As Regards Her Friends.

She Did Not Like People Who Were Bitchy Or Talked Behind Other People's Backs. Having Said That She Would Not Totally Ignore People And Got On Well With Everyone. Her Best Friend Would Probably Have Been Anne Marie Walsh, Alison's First Cousin Who Comes From Piltown And Is Currently Nursing In London.

She Had No Best Friend As Such At The Bank But Got On Well With Everyone And Occasionally Went Out With Some Of Her Colleagues From The Bank For A Drink Or A Meal After Work, I Would Also Meet Alison And Other Members Of Staff From The Bank In One Of The Pubs In The Strand And Have A Drink With Them After Work.

I Got To Know Quite A Few Of Them That Way, Alison Didn't Smoke At All And Drank Alcohol Very Rarely. She Normally Drank Coke When She Was Out. She Was Very Good With Children And Enjoyed Being With Them. When We Began To Discuss The Wedding Arrangements I Asked Alison Where She Would Like To Get Married And She Decided That She Wanted To Get Married In Piltown.

So We Began To Make The Appropriate Arrangements, We Did Some Of This During Our Summer Holiday In 000689, We Went And Saw The Priest Fr Woods, And The Hotel For The Reception Had To Be Booked 12 Months In Advance, We Chose The Ardree Hotel In Waterford To Hold The Reception And We Booked It Then As Well.

From Then Until The Wedding Itself Further Arrangements Were Made Both On The Phone And Through Relatives And Family In Ireland, My Brother Gerry Did The Majority Of This. We Also Went To Ireland For The Bank Holiday Weekend In 000889 And Again At Christmas 1989.

We Also Went At Easter 1990 And Again About Six Weeks Before The Wedding For A Few Days. Apart From The Last Trip Over There We Were Just Having A Holiday Although We Did Make Arrangements For The Wedding While We Were There, Alison And Myself Went Over To Ireland On 200690.

We Hired A Car From Direct Self Drive In Potters Bar And We Drove To Fishguard And Got A Night Sailing On The Ferry To Roslare And Then We Drove To Piltown. Alison Then Stayed With Her Aunt Stella Walsh, Ann Marie's Mother, In Piltown And I Stayed The Night With My Family In Roscommon.

Gerry Had Organised A Few Drinks For Me There With The Family And A Few Neighbours In Garveys Pub In Ballintuber. I Believe That Same Night Alison Was Taken To Waterford With Other Female Relatives And Friends For A Hen Night. I Drove Back Down To Piltown The Next Day ( 210690 ) And I Stayed At The Tower Hotel In Waterford That Night And The Ardree Hotel In Waterford The Following Night( 220690 ).

During The Day Time We Were Making The Final Arrangements For The Wedding, In Total There Were About 250 People Were Invited To The Wedding. This Included Family And Relatives And Also Friends From Ireland And London. There Were About Six Colleagues Of Alison's From The Bank And Two Of Them Had Their Boyfriends With Them.

I Had Invited A Few People From The Clinic But They Were Unable To Attend, We Were Married In The Catholic Church In Piltown, Co Kilkenny On 230690 At 1400. My Brother Gerry Was My Best Man And There Were Two Grooms Men, These Being My Brother Danny And Alison's Brother Robert, Alison Had Three Bridesmaids, Her Sister Susan.

Her Cousin Ann-Marie And My Niece Edel Slattery. Alison's Father Bobby "Gave Her Away". I Regard This As The Happiest Day Of My Life, 1900

This Statement ( Consisting Of 11 Pages ) Temporarily Stopped Due To The Fact That It Was Started At 1030 And Due To Breaks Taken, And Also Due To The Emotional State Of John Shaughnessy.

To Be Continued Monday 120891

( Signed ) Andrew Gallagher Dc 090891
( Signed ) John Shaughnessy