CATHERINE NEVIN has secured court permission to attend next month’s hearing of an application related to her legal bid to have her conviction for the murder of her husband Tom declared a miscarriage of justice.
When the matter was mentioned briefly before the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman granted an order permitting Ms Nevin attend the hearing on April 3rd of her application seeking certain information from the DPP.
The judge was told the DPP had no objection to Ms Nevin’s request to attend the hearing.
On April 3rd, Ms Nevin will seek an order requiring the DPP to answer questions as to whether three witnesses at her trial – William McClean, Gerard Heapes and John Jones – were ever State informers, and whether Mr McClean had paramilitary connections. She also wants the DPP to discover a range of material and documents which she claims are relevant to her claim of a miscarriage of justice.
She contends the documents sought, including material on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 and Garda security files on the three men, are relevant and will assist her in undermining the three men’s credibility.
Ms Nevin also claims the documents may potentially undermine the credibility of another State witness at her trial, Patrick Russell.
The DPP has opposed handing over the material and contends the issues raised were already considered at Ms Nevin’s trial at the Central Criminal Court and during her appeal.
Ms Nevin (55) was found guilty after a 42-day trial in April 2000 of the murder of her husband at their pub, Jack White’s Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19th, 1996.
She was also convicted on three counts of soliciting three different men to kill her husband in 1989 and 1990, six years before his murder.
She is serving a life sentence on the murder charge and a concurrent seven-year term on the soliciting charges. Nevin’s appeal against her conviction was dismissed in 2003 by the CCA.