THE COURT of Criminal Appeal has criticised delays in advancing the hearing of legal issues related to convicted murderer Catherine Nevin’s bid to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman said yesterday the hearing of Nevin’s preliminary application for certain information allegedly relevant to her miscarriage of justice claim, which opened last April but was adjourned for affidavits to be filed, had been going on “interminably”.
The judge queried why an “extraordinarily large volume” of newspaper cuttings had been exhibited on behalf of Nevin when their evidential value was “nil”.
He said an affidavit by journalist John Waters filed for the application contained hearsay matters. It was a case of “back to the future”, the same point about hearsay evidence having been made by the court a year ago, he added.
The court was told it had taken some 6½ months for two affidavits to be filed on behalf of Nevin while an affidavit on behalf of the DPP, in which privilege is claimed over one document, was filed just yesterday.
Mr Justice Hardiman said the Court of Criminal Appeal would adjourn the matter to November 17th with any replying affidavits to the DPP’s affidavit to be filed two weeks prior to that. He also directed Nevin’s lawyers to bring a motion setting out what they intended to do in the case.
In her application, 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 (55) was found guilty in April 2000 of the murder of her husband at their pub, Jack White’s Inn, Brittas Bay, on March 19th, 1996. She was also convicted of soliciting three men, Gerard 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.
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 Mr Waters called to give information about a newspaper article which refers to documents alleged to be relevant to the case.
Nevin’s side 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 10th and 16th, 1974, and who made telephone calls and sent telegrams to Belfast and London.
Nevin also claims other documents sought may potentially undermine the credibility of another State witness at her trial, Patrick Russell.