Mrs Catherine Nevin, who denies the murder of her husband at Jack White's Inn, told a carpet fitter she would "do" her husband or "have him done" a week before he was murdered, her trial heard yesterday.
Mr Donncha Long, a carpet fitter with Carpet Express of Artane, Dublin, gave evidence that he was laying carpet in Jack White's Inn between Monday, March 8th, 1996, and the following Friday. This was the week before Mr Nevin's murder, he said.
Mr Long said he found Mrs Nevin very hospitable. She would provide him and his co-fitters with breakfast, lunch and an evening meal.
She would often sit at the bar and chat to them. She spoke "quite a lot about her husband, although nothing too complimentary", he had to say.
She emphasised that Mr Nevin was a drinker, that she did not like him and alleged that he was having "sexual affairs with the barman there", he said. Mr Nevin had gone on holidays with him, she said.
Mr Long told Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, that the conversation that came to his mind most was one on the Thursday he was there. Mrs Nevin had been giving out about Mr Nevin and in the course of this she used "controversial words". These were that "she was going to do him or she'd have him done", Mr Long alleged.
He said he saw no evidence that Mr Nevin had a drink problem. He described Mr Nevin as "very nice, very polite to us, very pleasant", and said "he got on with his job". Mr Nevin did not have a drink with them, but would ask if they were OK for drink, as would Mrs Nevin - both made sure the fitters were looked after.
Cross-examined, Mr Long told Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, that he knew `the barman' as "the barman with the motorcycle".
He said there was a problem with the width of the carpets ordered for the pub and they had to be reordered so that the carpet seam would be concealed, as Mrs Nevin wanted.
She was not particularly pleased about the problem, he said, but the new order went through and the job went ahead.
He recalled that Mrs Nevin had "the odd drink at the bar" and said he was not watching how much she drank. He agreed she was extremely pleasant and hospitable.
Mr MacEntee said his instructions were that while there was "a bit of friction" at the beginning about the carpet seam that was not in the right place, Mrs Nevin did indeed talk to Mr Long but "nothing remotely like" what he suggested was said.
Mr MacEntee said that while his client admitted she "may be a bit of a scolder", she hadn't said anything like what he was suggesting.
Mr Long said she had and he didn't know how her mind worked. "All I can say is that we got very friendly in the course of the week, very friendly, very chatty and this arose out of that.
"She never once had one good word to say about Mr Nevin," he said. Mr MacEntee repeated that Mrs Nevin admitted she was prone to scolding people, but he suggested she did not say what Mr Long was alleging.
"You can suggest, Mr Mac Entee, but I am saying what she said to me," Mr Long said.
He told Mr MacEntee that a previous witness, Mr Alan McGraynor, was "definitely" there in the inn for some of the time he was working there. He said he probably saw him on the Monday, the day before Mr McGraynor was hospitalised after swerving to avoid a fox on his motorbike.
"All I know is that I met the lad, he was there," Mr Long said.
Mr McGraynor, a former chef at the premises, has given evidence that he went on holidays with Mr Nevin twice. He said Mr Nevin never discussed private matters with him.
In other evidence yesterday the probate registrar at the Four Courts, Ms Deirdre Farrell, told counsel that on Janaury 27th 1997 a solicitor acting for Mrs Nevin lodged an application for a grant of letters of administration intestate to the estate of Mr Nevin.
That application was pending, the court heard.
In the Central Criminal Court, Mrs Nevin (48) has denied the murder of her husband 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.
The jury has heard that Mr Nevin died in the course of what the prosecution alleges was a botched robbery designed to conceal a contract killing carried out at his wife's behest.
Mrs Nevin herself was tied up and a substantial amount of cash was seized. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions has alleged that Mrs Nevin wanted control of the inn and bore animosity towards her husband.
Yesterday the jury also heard that Mrs Nevin regularly stayed in a flat in Dublin with another man between 1991 and 1993.
Ms Linda Evans said she rented a two-room flat at a house in Mountshannon Road, Rialto from Tom and Catherine Nevin in those years.
Ms Evans said Mrs Nevin used to come to the house "regularly, maybe twice, three times a month, and she would stay downstairs". Mrs Nevin would be with somebody else, she said.
Ms Evans didn't know this man. She described him as "between 5ft 6in and 6ft, probably late 40s, early 50s", with "black hair going grey, slicked back".
Ms Evans said that as far as she could remember, other than saying "a hello", she had never spoken to the man.
On the 19th day of the trial the jury also heard that following a contact from ex-Insp Tom Kennedy, a garda from Wicklow station patrolled a nine-mile stretch of road near Jack White's Inn one night to see if anyone was following Mr Nevin home as he returned from Dublin.
Sgt Pat Carroll of the station said ex-Insp Kennedy contacted the station in or around Thursday, February 22nd, 1996.
Sgt Carroll told Tom O'Connell BL, for the prosecution, that arising out of this he travelled in an unmarked Garda car in the night of March 4th 1996 and drove up and down the road before Mr Nevin's arrival. When Mr Nevin passed him the garda waited until he had driven a half a mile and then followed at a distance for a time.
Sgt Carroll agreed with Mr MacEntee that he had been given to understand by ex-Insp Kennedy that Mr Nevin had complained he was being followed as he returned from Dublin to Jack White's on Monday nights. The sergeant said he noted no strange cars on the road that night, and no sign that Mr Nevin was being followed.
Mr Michael Kelly of Slane, Co Meath, told the trial of a conversation he had with Mrs Nevin when he called for a drink in the pub on the evening of March 8th, 1996.
Mr Kelly said Mrs Nevin drew his attention to a report of an armed robbery on the television, and remarked that "nobody was safe any longer in their homes". He said she went on to tell him that Mr Nevin had been followed "the other night" when he was leaving customers home from the pub.
At that point Mr Nevin came into the bar to serve a pint and Mrs Nevin said, "I was just telling this man about you being followed the other night".
Mr Kelly told Mr MacEntee that Mr Nevin turned and said, "That's right, I was followed and I was worried because I had stuff from the cash and carry in the boot".
Mr Nevin went on to say that "anytime he went quicker or faster the car behind kept with him, it kept right up behind him", the witness said.
The trial continues before a jury and Ms Justice Carroll today.