Nevin appeal unlikely to resume until new year
An application by convicted murderer Catherine Nevin as part of her appeal to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice is not likely to resume until the new year.
The hearing of Nevin's preliminary application, before the Court of Criminal Appeal, for certain information allegedly relevant to her miscarriage of justice claim opened last April but was adjourned so that affidavits to be filed.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman at the CCA today adjourned Ms Nevin's case to December 7, when a new date for the resumption of the hearing is to be fixed.
Mr Justice Hardiman further directed that lawyer for Mrs Nevin present to the court a booklet containing all documents relating to new evidence which it is claimed are relevant to their client's application. The Judge added that inclusion in the book did not guarantee that the material will be admissible.
The hearing is expected to last for two days.
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 her application, Ms Nevin is seeking documents alleged to be "hugely relevant" to her bid for a certificate of a miscarriage of justice.
The documents sought include Garda security files on three men who gave evidence against Nevin at her trial and material relating to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 and garda security files on the three men. Nevin claims the documents will assist her in undermining the three men's credibility.
Nevin is seeking an order requiring the DPP to answer whether the three witnesses at her trial - William McClean, Gerard Heapes and John Jones - were ever State informers and whether Mr McClean, with whom Nevin denied having an affair, had paramilitary connections.
Her lawyers are also seeking to have journalist John Waters called to give information about an article which refers to documents alleged to be relevant to the case.
They are also seeking depositions in the Report of the Independent Commission of inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings (the Barron report) which they say identified Mr McClean as a person who stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between May 10 and May 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.
