Catherine Nevin seeks release of informer files

Notorious murderer Catherine Nevin today applied for the Court of Criminal Appeal to order the release of secret State files on three Garda informers whose evidence helped convict her.

The killer, dubbed 'The Black Widow' after plotting her husband Tom’s death, is serving a life sentence for the murder.

Her lawyer Anne Fitzgibbon lodged the application at Dublin’s Four Courts seeking access to the classified documents.

She argued that the material was not released during Nevin’s trial and included information which casts doubt on the credibility and motivation of three key prosecutions witnesses.

The court adjourned the case until March 3 when a date for a full hearing on the disclosure issue will be set.

Nevin was convicted in April 2000 of murdering her husband at Jack White’s Inn near Brittas Bay, County Wicklow on March 19, 1996. She was jailed for life and also received a seven-year sentence for soliciting three men to carry out the killing in 1989 and 1990.

The 55-year-old was not in court for the brief hearing.

Her lawyers are seeking access to files on three informers William McCleane, Gerry Heapes and John Jones.

Solicitor Miss Fitzgibbon told the court she believed Mr McCleane also had paramilitary connections which should have been disclosed during the trial. The application is being taken under the Crime Procedure Act 1993 in a bid to have the conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is likely to oppose the release of the files, the court was told.

Miss Nevin alleges material in the State files indicates that Mr McCleane was a suspect in the Dublin Monaghan bombings in 1974 and during her trial that he denied any paramilitary involvement.