A retired Garda inspector, who was alleged to have been found in bed with murder accused Mrs Catherine Nevin, has denied he ever had an affair with her and said he "wasn't into that".
Yesterday saw the end of the prosecution case after 20 days of evidence.
Former Wicklow Garda inspector Mr Tom Kennedy denied he was ever in bed with Mrs Nevin with his shirt off, as a former staff worker at Jack White's Inn has alleged.
Mr Kennedy was called to the witness stand by the prosecution as it neared the end of its case, but Mr Peter Charleton SC, the prosecution barrister, put no questions to him. Mr Kennedy was cross-examined by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending. He said he retired in March 1994 from the Garda Siochana, two months short of 40 years' service. He held the rank of inspector since 1976 and retired on reaching the age limit.
He had known Mrs Catherine Nevin since about 1991 and had often frequented Jack White's Inn. "I knew both of them quite well, my lord, they often consulted me if they had problems," he said of Tom and Catherine Nevin.
Mr MacEntee put it to him that evidence had been given that he was seen in bed with Mrs Nevin with his shirt off in her room in Jack White's Inn. "That is not so, my lord," said Mr Kennedy.
He said he was in Mrs Nevin's bedroom sometimes. "She would frequently have bouts of illness and I would be asked to visit her there." On other occasions, he had collected medications from a pharmacy in Wicklow and delivered them to her. He said her husband Tom would have asked him to visit her, or on other occasions, members of staff would ask him to see her.
He talked to Mrs Nevin about business things, he said, the usual problems of running the business, such as staff, stolen property or dud cheques. There was a chair in her bedroom and he would sit in it and talk to her there.
Asked by Mr MacEntee had he ever had a sexual affair with Mrs Catherine Nevin, Mr Kennedy replied: "No, my lord, never. I am not into that, my lord, I value my family and my marriage."
Mr Kennedy said he was married for 34 years, lived with his wife, and had three grown-up children in their early 30s.
Asked had he ever visited a premises belonging to the Nevins at Mountshannon Road, Rialto, Dublin, he said he had. Mrs Nevin asked him to visit there with her when she was collecting the rent on two occasions, he said. "She was having problems with a tenant and she just asked me to go there with her."
"No, I did not stay overnight there," he said to further questions from Mr MacEntee. There was never a sexual affair between himself and Mrs Nevin there either, he said. On the two occasions he was at the flat, he was there for half to three-quarters of an hour. "I waited in the hallway while she collected the rent and I then made a cup of coffee in the flat there," he said, "a flat that seemed to be vacant."
Earlier in the trial, Ms Caroline Strahan (24), of Redcross, Co Wicklow, who worked at Jack White's Inn between 1992 and 1994, said she believed Mrs Nevin had an affair with Mr Kennedy, whom she described as "the superintendent from Wicklow `'.
When she was challenged by the defence, Ms Strahan said: "Well, that's what it seemed like to me, what I had seen when I was working there." She said she saw Mr Kennedy and Mrs Nevin "in Catherine's bedroom a few times", "in Catherine's bed".
She alleged that on one occasion when she went to tell Mrs Nevin she had a phone call, "from what I seen, Tom didn't have any shirt on him and I can't remember about Catherine".
Another prosecution witness, Ms Eileen Byrne, said Mr Kennedy was at the inn "every morning" when she worked there as a cleaner in 1994. "It was like a second home" to him, she said. The evidence from retired inspector Kennedy denying the allegations came on the 20th day of the trial of Mrs Nevin (48), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband Mr Tom Nevin (54) on March 19th, 1996, in their home at Jack White's Inn, Ballinapark, near Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow.
She has also pleaded not guilty to three counts of soliciting to murder. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that on dates in 1989, she solicited Mr John Jones, that in or about 1990 she solicited Mr Gerry Heapes and that on a date unknown in 1990 at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, she solicited Mr William McClean, to murder her husband.
The prosecution case has closed and the trial will continue on Monday before Ms Justice Carroll and a jury.