U2 assistant accused of 2.8 million Euro theft

The former personal assistant of U2's Adam Clayton has been accused of stealing nearly three million Euros from the Irish rocker.

Carol Hawkins is accused of sealing the money over a four-year period, defrauding the U2 star in a plot involving 181 cheques after being made a signatory to Clayton's accounts. The trial began in Dublin yesterday and was described as a 'grubby' breach of trust by prosecutor Colm O'Brien.

"Mr Clayton placed a substantial amount of trust in her. He is as entitled as any other to place his trust in people," he said at the trial.

Hawkins is accused of taking the money between 2004 and 2008 while pocketing a modest 48,000 Euro salary and living rent-free with the star in his Dublin home.

She denies the charges.

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