THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has refused to grant the disclosure of information related to the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings, sought by Catherine Nevin as part of her attempt to have her murder conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.
Paul Anthony McDermott SC, for the Department of the Taoiseach, argued there was “absolute privilege” attaching to the material collected by the MacEntee inquiry into the bombings.
He said when the inquiry’s chairman, Paddy MacEntee SC, handed over custody of the “three or four presses” of “secret” documents to the Taoiseach’s office, he did so because they could give rise to a risk to people’s lives, State security and relations with external agencies. The findings of the 2007 report could not be published for legal reasons.
Hugh Hartnett SC, for Nevin, had claimed that questions arose as to the identity of a man who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between May 10th and 16th, 1974, suspected of being involved in the Dublin-Monaghan Bombings.
Nevin sought access to the material claiming it would assist her in undermining the credibility of William McClean, one of the key witnesses at her trial 10 years ago.
The three-judge court declined a production order yesterday, holding that it was not satisfied the MacEntee inquiry information was relevant, in particular because it related to an incident “a generation” before the trial of Nevin for the murder of her husband, Tom.
However, the Court of Criminal Appeal, with Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Mr Justice George Birmingham, did agree to review confidential Garda files alleged to exist on William McClean, one of which it is claimed is in the possession of the Special Detective Unit.
The court said it would decide whether to disclose these documents, on the basis of their relevance to Nevin’s attempts at proving her conviction was unsafe, or if they suggested “a new line of inquiry”.
In April 2000, Nevin (58) was convicted of murdering her husband Tom at their pub, Jack White’s Inn, Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, on March 19th, 1996. She was also convicted of soliciting Mr McClean, and two other men, Gerry Heapes and John Jones, to kill her husband.
She is serving a life sentence on the murder charge and a concurrent seven-year term on the soliciting charges. Her appeal against the conviction was dismissed in 2003.
Nevin is seeking an order requiring the Director of Public Prosecutions to answer whether Mr McClean, Mr Heapes and Mr Jones were ever State informers and whether Mr McClean, with whom Nevin denied having an affair, had paramilitary connections.
The hearing of her application was adjourned yesterday to resume during the next legal term.
Earlier, the court heard from Sunday Worldreporter Niamh O'Connor whose article on a "top secret" Garda file was published in February 2008. The article claimed McClean was working "as a double agent", and was a "registered Garda informer".
However the appeal court said Ms O’Connor “over-relied” on the “suspect” file as it “didn’t bear out” these “ascertains”. The court already heard Garda evidence that the “suspect antecedent history” file, despite its title, was “worthless” and had “no intelligence value”.