A former worker at Jack White's Inn yesterday alleged she saw murder accused Catherine Nevin in bed with a senior garda officer.
Ms Caroline Strahan (24), of Redcross, Co Wicklow, who worked at Jack White's Inn between 1992 and 1994, said she believed Catherine Nevin had an affair with a man whose name was Tom Kennedy and whom, she believed, was "the superintendent from Wicklow". The court later heard that Mr Kennedy was in fact a garda inspector, since retired.
Another prosecution witness, Ms Eileen Byrne, said Insp Kennedy was at the pub "every morning" when she worked there as a cleaner in 1994.
"It was like a second home" to him, she said.
Further evidence that Tom and Catherine Nevin's marriage was purely a business arrangement was heard as former staff at the pub continued to appear in the witness box on the 10th day of the trial of Mrs Nevin (48), who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband Tom (54) at their home in Jack White's Inn, Ballinapark, near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow. She has also denied counts of soliciting three men to murder her husband on dates in and around 1989 and 1990.
The prosecution alleges that the murder took place under the guise of an armed robbery arranged by Mrs Nevin. It alleges that Mrs Nevin bore animosity towards her husband and wanted control of the business she jointly owned and ran with him. Mrs Nevin has denied all the charges.
In evidence yesterday, Ms Strahan told Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, that, from what she saw, Tom and Catherine Nevin "used to argue a lot of the time" and "they had separate bedrooms". She said Mrs Nevin had a relationship with another man, Mr Tom Kennedy, whom she said was "the superintendent in Wicklow".
Asked was Mr Nevin aware of this, she replied: "I am not sure that he was."
Cross-examined by counsel for Mrs Nevin, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, Ms Strahan said she was 15 years old and 11 months when she began working at the inn, first in the kitchen and then doing waitressing.
Mr MacEntee put it to her that his instructions were that it was not so that Mrs Nevin had an affair with Tom Kennedy. The witness replied: "Well, that's what it seemed like to me, what I had seen when I was working there."
Re-examining the witness, Mr Charleton said her allegation had been challenged by the defence, so could she say what she saw. Ms Strahan replied: "I seen Tom (Kennedy) and Catherine in Catherine's bedroom a few times." In what situation, she was asked: "In Catherine's bed," she replied. "There was a phone call for Catherine and I went upstairs to tell her and that's how I saw them."
Asked to finish the sentence, Ms Strahan continued, "Catherine and Tom were in Catherine's bedroom when I went in to tell Catherine about the phone call."
Re-examined further, the witness said she couldn't remember the time but thought it was in the evening. Asked how they were clothed, she said: "From what I seen, Tom didn't have any shirt on him and I can't remember about Catherine."
What did he have on if not a shirt, counsel asked. "I didn't see anything," the witness replied.
Caroline Strahan was cross-examined on her evidence that when staff went to disco, they would normally be let back into the inn by the chef, Mr Alan McGraynor, who was entrusted with a key.
She agreed with Mr MacEntee that sometimes if they came back late from a disco they were told they wouldn't be able to get back in after the next one.
"Catherine would say you cannot go the next time if you were back too late," she said. This "just happened once or twice, I couldn't remember when it was", she said.
But she agreed that it had happened that Mrs Nevin had said there would be no keys left and if she wanted to go to the disco she should make her own arrangements.
Another prosecution witness, Ms Eileen Byrne of Kilbride, told the court she worked in Jack White's Inn from February 1994 "up until about five or six months" as a morning cleaner.
Asked how she found the deceased man, Tom Nevin, she said: "I found him a very nice man. He was pleasant from what I knew of him."
Asked by Mr Charleton could she indicate whether Mr Tom Kennedy had been around the premises while she was working there, she said: "Every morning - it was like a second home." He came at around 10:30 or 11 a.m., she said, "out of uniform".
Questioned about what she saw of the Nevins' relationship, she said: "I never saw affection between the two of them in any way."
She added: "Sometimes disagreements, maybe sometimes cross words, but never, ever, was Tom Nevin violent."
Ms Catherine McGraynor of Kilbride, who worked in the pub from June 1994 to August 1997, said "everyone got on with" Mr Nevin. "Some people just called him `Daddy' from time to time," she told counsel. Asked about what she saw of the Nevins' relationship, she said: "They were just there for the sake of the business."
Asked who had keys to the inn to let staff back in after a disco, she said that, in addition to her brother Alan, two other staff members, Ms Bernie Fleming and Ms Liz Hudson, had keys. "Once or twice" they would have knocked on the window and Tom or Catherine Nevin would have let them back in, she said. Questioned as to whether she knew of anyone ever having been disciplined for not coming back on time, she replied: "I never heard of it."
Ms McGraynor said that she and other staff members left the inn after midnight on the morning of the murder for a disco in Arklow.
She recalled a conversation with Mrs Nevin prior to that day in which the accused said they weren't allowed come back to the inn that night.
Catherine McGraynor said a taxi was to bring Ms Liz Hudson home but she lived further away than Liz and wondered if she could stop at the inn that night. "Catherine said there was no way was I staying there that night." Did she give a reason, counsel asked. The witness said no. Had she ever been told this before? "No," she replied.
Her brother, Mr Alan McGray nor, the former chef at the inn, told the trial he would normally go to discos with the other staff but, on the week before the murder, he swerved on his motorbike to avoid a fox and was hospitalised, undergoing an operation for a ruptured spleen.
Mr McGraynor gave evidence that Tom Nevin normally did the daily and weekly accounts at the inn himself, though Mr McGraynor would help him on occasion. Doing the daily accounts took a half to three-quarters of an hour, he said. Money taken in on a bank holiday weekend, counting the four days, usually amounted to between £8,000 and £9,000. The trial continues on Monday before Ms Justice Carroll and a jury in the Central Criminal Court.