FLIGHT TO FREEDOM
Our reporter joins Eamonn Lillis on the plane to England as the wife killer starts a new life hours after being freed from jail
WIFE-KILLER Eamon Lillis went from being prisoner 55511 to passenger 14D, flying from Dublin to Southampton to spend his first night as a free man with his sister.
The journey – during which the former TV producer interacted with nobody – was the last leg of an ultimately futile plan by the man who battered his wife to death with a brick to avoid the media.
The escape plan involved an hourlong chase around Dublin and window shopping in Dublin Airport while he tried to kill six hours ahead of the no-frills flight to freedom.
But his demeanour on the flight, where he enjoyed a window seat for the cloudless approach to Southampton, was not that of a man who tasting his first moments of liberty.
He sat beside a young blonde girl, who happily ate crisps and talked across the aisle to her father. It was not clear whether the man knew the notoriety of his daughter’s trav-
He got into a silver Audi A1 driven by a blonde
elling companion. Lillis, wearing reading glasses, stuck his head in a book, the Oxford Book of American Short Stories, and didn’t speak to anybody during the 70-minute flight – not even acknowledging the flight steward when asked if he’d like refreshment.
After landing, Lillis waited patiently to disembark and walked briskly through to arrivals.
With a small grey rucksack over his shoulder and no luggage to collect, he cleared the arrivals hall quickly and went straight to the pick-up area of the small provincial airport where he got into a silver Audi A1 driven by a blonde woman, in her 50s, who fitted the description of his sister Carmel.
Carmel, who lives in nearby Fareham, just outside Portsmouth, was with Lillis on his last day of freedom at his sentencing and it is understood he spent his first night at her detached suburban home. It was perhaps a more relaxing end to what was a dramatic and stressful day for the man who served five years in prison for killing his exBond girl wife, on whom he was cheating with masseuse Jean Treacy at the time of her death.
The day started unusually warm and bright for April, with Lillis walking free from Wheatfield Prison in west Dublin. He walked the few yards to a waiting maroon taxi.
Looking smart in a grey top, black T-shirt and black trousers, Lillis strode purposefully towards the car, which by then had been waiting almost three-quarters of an hour.
The now 57-year-old did not look a day older than when he was jailed for killing his wife in 2010. He did nothing to conceal his face, despite putting off leaving the prison for 24 hours because of the large media presence. His original plan had been to skip the media by leaving the prison on temporary release on Friday, then slip to the airport a day later, out of the media glare. But Lillis refused to leave on Friday despite being granted his temporary release.
The MoS has learned a friend of Lillis drove by the prison on Friday morning and had a good look at the media waiting at the prison gates.
When Lillis did finally emerge yesterday morning, he kept his head high as the car pulled out and turned left onto Cloverhill Road.
The waiting media quickly pulled in behind, expecting his car to drive on to the M50 and towards the air- port. But it didn’t. Instead, the taxi swung down towards Clondalkin and continued through the village. Lillis glanced back over his left shoulder to see who was behind.
The car continued to Newlands Cross and straight up Belgard Road. The killer then instructed the driver to go south on the M50, before getting off at Leopardstown and heading towards Stillorgan. The taxi was driven carefully by a driver who had great respect for the rules of the road.
He kept well below the speed limit and made no attempt to speed through any orange light.
The car then turned on to the N11 and headed back towards town, turning off at Donnybrook, through Ballsbridge and past the Aviva.
He passed the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and out on to the Samuel Beckett Bridge. Lillis then instructed his driver to take the Port Tunnel back to the airport.
The killer – who has left prison with more than a million euro in his back pocket after a legal battle with his wife’s family and his only daughter – glanced back a handful of times.
He looked pale when he eventually emerged from the taxi at Ter-
He kept his head high as the car pulled out
minal 1. Jumping hastily from the car and carrying just a small grey Timberland bag, his passport and a well-thumbed copy of the Oxford Book Of American Short Stories he was immediately surrounded by the waiting media.
He looked decidedly uncomfortable as he made his way to the security gates. And although most prisoners show remorse when given the opportunity, Lillis declined to utter any words of comfort to his wife’s family or to say he was sorry for what he had done when asked to do so by the MoS.
When he did speak, his only words, were: ‘I have served my time.’
Passengers looked bemused as Lillis made his way through the departure gate, went to security gate two and slowly and methodically removed his top, book and day pack, as he went through the scan machine, just before 11am.
He ambled over to the massive screen showing the times of all departing flights, where he checked and rechecked his boarding pass. The Southampton flight wasn’t scheduled to leave for another five and a half hours.
Outwardly he appeared to be calm but as the sweat began to pour down his face, it looked as if internally there was a cauldron of emotions.
After making a phone call on a cheap Nokia phone, he then headed towards the duty-free shopping area, perhaps hoping that some retail therapy might help him adjust to life outside.
But he remained ill at ease as he aimlessly made his way around the counters for ladies’ make-up and perfume – a place men usually buy presents for the women in their lives.
At the men’s section, he treated himself to some Paco Rabanne aftershave, which doesn’t come cheap – the smallest 50ml size costs €46.75 and the 100ml comes with a €90.80 price tag.
Curiously it is mocked up as a gold bar, selling itself as perfume that exudes affluence. With €1.3m in the bank, it was perhaps an apt choice for Lillis.
After paying for his aftershave, the wife killer then went to Boots where he lingered for several minutes before finally deciding to purchase a Boots own brand €2.48 Smile tooth brush.
He strolled along the sun tan lotion aisle but decided he didn’t need sun screen and instead turned for WH Smith, where he went straight over to the bestseller shelf. The first book to grab his attention was crime writer John Connolly’s latest offering, A Song of Shadows.
Despite the chance to buy the Connolly crime book for €18.20 and get a second volume for half price, Lillis didn’t part with any cash and instead headed to the Irish Whiskey Corner, which stocks 365 different whiskeys. Nothing seemed to catch his fancy there and even the finest gins and vodkas could not tempt him.
Shortly after, Lillis managed to give watching media the slip, disappearing for a number of hours, before reappearing at Gate 209 at 3.40pm, in plenty of time for his 16.25 flight to the south of England. He sat at the gate, not interacting with anybody, avoiding eye contact and made his way immediately to board when the flight was called at 16.05.
It may have seemed he was eager to return to an enclosed space after his hours in limbo at the airport, but it wasn’t until he was free out the other side of Southampton airport and in his sister’s car that Lillis, seemed to breathe any sighs of relief.
He decided he didn’t need sun screen