Mother ‘had a threesome with killer and his victim before covering up fatal holiday park shooting for convict’s lover’
A mother had a threesome with a killer and his victim before trying to cover up the fatal holiday park shooting, a court has heard.
Daisy Donohoe helped convicted lover Jonathan Lawlor ‘keep quiet’ after he murdered Sam Petrou – who he met while both were jailed in HMP Stamford Hill, it has been claimed.
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The mother-of-two, 36, booked a hotel stay and bought Lawlor clothes so he could avoid justice after shooting his victim, jurors were told.
He used a converted self-loading pistol to carry out the murder on June 10 last year, it is claimed.
Dad Sam, 35, was shot in a friend’s caravan at Cliff Cottage Chalet Park, on the Isle of Sheppey.
He previously had a three-person sexual encounter with the couple while Lawlor was on leave 13 months earlier court heard.
Lawlor was held in connection with Sam’s death and charged, but died while in custody jail42 years old, reports KentOnline.
Donohoe had to stand trial alone, charged with perverting the course of justice.
In addition to booking the hotel and purchases, police found internet searches on her phone on how to obtain Irish passports and fleeing to Vietnam, Maidstone Crown Court was told.
She denies knowing that her late boyfriend, whom she had known since childhood, was responsible for the murder.
In testimony Wednesday, she detailed the verbal abuse she allegedly received from Lawlor during their two-year relationship.
She said he would bully her and accuse her of cheating while she drank and took drugs.
Donohoe, from Welling, south-east London, said he would ‘follow’ her movements, head-butted a colleague and punched her in a row over her lip filler.
She also claimed she believed Lawlor shot her in the butt while she slept a month prior to the murder.
Donohoe had a brief relationship with Lawlor in 2005 and had known him since she was five, the court heard.
In 2020, she then wrote to him in prison for “nostalgic reasons” before visiting Standford Hill, it was said.
The relationship was rekindled the following year when Lawlor was allowed to go on leave after being transferred to Ford West Sussex prison opens.
THREE-WAY HULL
The threesome with Sam – who was already out – took place while on leave in May 2022, jurors heard.
Donohoe said the sex was provoked by Lawlor, but claimed it was not something she wanted to do.
“Jonathan and I were at home and Sam had called because he wanted to meet up,” she explained.
“Jonathan invited him our houseWe all had a few drinks and Jonathan decided he wanted me to perform a sex act on him in front of Sam… it just started from there.”
Donohoe also said Lawlor had wanted her to have sex with other people on two other occasions during other times he was on leave.
She also described how he “had a breakdown” when he hired a male escort after she had refused to visit a sex club.
But she said he and Sam, who was from Gillingham, were doing ‘fine’ after meeting and that ‘nothing changed’ in the men’s friendship.
But in December 2022, Lawlor shot Sam with an air rifle and warned that “next one time it would be real,” the jury heard.
Sam then gave his former fellow prisoner “a good head start” until their chance meeting at The Coppice pub in Eastchurch on June 9 last year, the court was told.
The encounter, captured on CCTV, showed the two men sitting at a garden table as Lawlor gestured to Sam and became animated.
SHOT
The next evening he was murdered.
One bullet severed his aorta and hit his spine, while the other passed through his body and ricocheted off a kitchen unit into the shower room.
Sam was found dead on June 11, fallen to the floor against a cupboard.
The weapon itself was never recovered, however DNA shell casings found at the scene matched Lawlor’s.
He was also identified on CCTV footage as the shooter and was seen fleeing Sheppey in Donohoe’s Jeep with her in the passenger seat, the court was told.
The couple stayed at The Shurland Hotel in Eastchurch High Street the night before the shooting and then arrived at the holiday Inn Express in Sittingbourne just 20 minutes after the murder, the court heard.
Donohoe said she was unaware that Lawlor had been in regular contact with another woman, sending messages saying she “just got done”.
And she denied that her decision to give him her phone’s SIM card as she left the Holiday Inn to go home was another attempt to help him “cover his tracks”.
The day before the shooting couple met Lawlor’s sister Victoria, who had a caravan near the Cliff Cottage site, and drank until the early hours before returning to The Shurland, the court heard.
The next day – that of the fatal shooting itself – they returned to his sister’s caravan for a barbecue, jurors were told.
She said there came a time when her boyfriend left his sister’s house.
Donohoe told the court: “He just came out (the caravan) and walked straight past me. He didn’t say a word to me. I felt bad and thought I should just leave him alone. I wasn’t sure where he was. to go.”
This is when Lawlor, who was also wanted on prison license recall at the time, had left to carry out the murder, it is claimed.
When he returned later – claiming to be going for a drink – she said he asked for her car keys and then told her to “get in”.
He took her to the Holiday Inn, the court heard.
She denied that he told her during the trip that he had “done the job” and that they needed to “get out quickly.”
Lawlor was arrested in Newcastle on June 15. The court heard he died in prison in October.
Donohoe denies perverting the course of justice between June 9 and June 12 last year and her trial continues.
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