Nevin given permission to attend court hearing

The Court of Criminal Appeal has granted convicted murderer Catherine Nevin permission to attend court next month for the hearing of an application related to her 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 CCA today, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman granted Ms Nevin a production order which will allow her attend the hearing of a motion seeking information from the DPP, previously fixed for April 3.

The Judge made the order after being informed that the State had no objection to Ms Nevin's request to attend the hearing.

In her motion Nevin is seeking 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 is relevant to her claim of a miscarriage of justice.

As part of her application for a miscarriage of justice Ms Nevin is contending that 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.

Nevin also claims the documents may potentially undermine the credibility of another State witness at her trial, Patrick Russell.

The DPP has opposing handing over the material and contends the issues raised were already considered at Nevin's trial at the Central Criminal Court and during her appeal.

Catherine Nevin (aged 55) was found guilty after a 42-day trial in April 2000 of the murder of her husband Tom at their pub, Jack White's Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19, 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.