Nevin appeal to resume next March

The hearing of convicted murderer Catherine Nevin's bid to gain access to documents which she claims are highly relevant to her application to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice will resume next March.

The hearing of Nevin's preliminary application for the information opened last April but was adjourned for affidavits to be filed by both sides.

At the Court of Criminal Appeal this morning, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman fixed Monday, March 22, next for the resumption of the hearing.

Nevin (aged 55) was found guilty in April 2000 of the murder of her husband at their pub, Jack White's Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19, 1996. She was also convicted of soliciting three different men, Gerry Heapes, William McClean and John Jones to kill her husband in 1989 and 1990.

She is serving a life sentence on the murder charge and a concurrent seven-year term on the soliciting charges. Her appeal against conviction was dismissed in 2003.

In pursuit of her application for a certificate of a miscarriage of justice in her case, Nevin is seeking a range of documents including Garda security files on certain prosecution witnesses at her trial - Mr McClean, Mr Heapes, and Mr Jones - and material relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. She claims the documents will assist her in undermining the witnesses' credibility.

She also wants an order requiring the DPP to answer whether Mr McClean, Mr Heapes and John Jones were ever State informers and whether Mr McClean, with whom Nevin denied having an affair, had paramilitary connections.

They also want depositions in the Report of the Independent Commission of inquiry into the Dublin Monaghan bombings (the Barron report) which they claim identified Mr McClean as a person who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between May 10 to 16, 1974, who made telephone calls and sent telegrams to Belfast and London.

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