LAWYERS FOR the State have failed to prevent an application by convicted murderer Catherine Nevin from being heard on the basis that her case had no merit.
Nevin’s application to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice resumed yesterday before the Court of Criminal Appeal. She is serving a life sentence on the murder charge and a concurrent seven-year term on soliciting charges. Her original appeal against conviction was dismissed in 2003.
She is seeking to access privileged documents which her legal team said could cast doubt on the credibility of three witnesses who gave evidence during her trial.
The appeal court ruled it was not satisfied her application case was “so unstateable” it warranted dismissal at “this stage”, but added that its decision to allow the matter to proceed was “not to say” it had any “merit or substance” to it.
In April 2000, Nevin was convicted of murdering her husband Tom at their pub, Jack White’s Inn, Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, on March 19th, 1996. Nevin was also convicted of soliciting Gerry Heapes, William McClean and John Jones, to kill her husband.
Nevin appeared in court before Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Mr Justice George Birmingham.
She is also seeking an order requiring the DPP to answer whether Mr McClean, Mr Heapes and Mr Jones were ever State informers and whether Mr McClean, with whom Nevin denied having an affair, had paramilitary connections.
Hugh Hartnett SC, for Nevin, contended that information contained in a newspaper article in 2008 showing what purported to be a suspect antecedent history form, a type of Garda security record, listed Mr McClean’s associates as members of illegal and paramilitary organisations, including the INLA and Provisional IRA.
This information was not available to Nevin’s defence at trial.
Lawyers for the State argued that even if a document was capable of undermining Mr McClean’s credibility, it was “not relevant” to the safety of Nevin’s conviction.
In order to find Nevin guilty of murder, the jury was first required to convict her on a solicitation charge.
The jury returned guilty verdicts in respect of all three solicitation charges, including that which concerned Mr McClean.
However Mr Hartnett argued that the issue of Mr McClean’s credibility did not concern just the solicitation charge which involved him.
He said the entire case against his client “depended almost entirely on three men” and without them there would be no murder conviction.
Mr Hartnett said if one was “tainted”, it followed that all three could be considered to be tainted
He added if one was shown to be lacking in credibility then the close connectivity of the other could have caused “the case to tumble”.
Nevin’s legal team is also seeking depositions in the Barron report of the inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which they claim identifies Mr McClean as having stayed in the Four Courts Hotel between May 10th-16th, 1974, and as being the person who made phone calls and sent telegrams to Belfast and London.
This same man, the inquiry report said, “turned up” as a witness in the Nevin murder trial in 2000.
Correspondence between former chief justice Liam Hamilton in the independent commission of inquiry into the bombings to a legal representative referred to confidential information which lists among others “Wilkinson McClean”.
Nevin’s lawyers say this is William McClean.
Counsel for the State Tom O’Connell SC yesterday argued that gardaí “do not know who Wilkinson is, was or if he ever existed”. Mr O’Connell said “Barron does not put the matter any further, nor do the depositions”.
The hearing continues today.
Focus on credibility of witnesses over claimed paramilitary links
THE RIGHT to access documents and the credibility of witnesses who gave evidence during the murder trial of Catherine Nevin 10 years ago were the focus of her case at the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Nevin’s representative, Hugh Hartnett SC, told the court that he was seeking the release of files which would show that trial witness William McClean, one of three men who said they were solicited by Nevin to kill her husband Tom, had links to paramilitary activity and, in particular, to the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings.
Mr Hartnett said a letter, from former chief justice Liam Hamilton, seen during the Barron inquiry into the bombings, referred to confidential information about the alleged involvement of a “Wilkinson McClean” who, Nevin’s legal team say, could be William McClean.
He said other documents might show Mr McClean had made phone calls and sent telegrams to Belfast and London while staying at the Four Courts Hotel in Dublin in May 1974.
This evidence, Mr Hartnett said, was not available to Nevin’s team at the time of her trial for the 1996 murder, which saw her given a life sentence.
Despite stumbling on a step as she entered the courtroom, Nevin appeared composed while listening to the evidence. The court heard of her husband’s death and allegations that she had an affair with Mr McClean.
Tom O’Connell SC for the DPP had moved to dismiss her appeal. He said Nevin’s legal team needed to establish a new line of inquiry which was credible and relevant.
He said the credibility of the witnesses – Mr McClean, Gerard Heapes and John Jones – had been vigorously attacked during the trial and that the jury took this fact into account when making their decision to convict her.
Mr Hartnett said Mr Heapes had admitted his past links to the IRA and that Mr Jones was involved in a Sinn Féin clinic in Finglas in the 1980s. He said Sinn Féin and the IRA were “not too far apart” at this time and that through association with Mr Heapes and Mr Jones, the same could be said for Mr McClean.
“If one was shown to be lacking credibility and untrustworthy, another shown to be a close association of that . . . the case could very well tumble,” Mr Hartnett said.
Mr O'Connell said Mr McClean had denied any links to a paramilitary organisation.
STEVEN CARROLL