A former member of Sinn Fein told the Nevin murder trial yesterday that Mrs Catherine Nevin asked him to get the IRA to murder her husband and make the killing look like "a botched hold-up". The witness said he laughed the suggestion off. Mr John Jones, who was a television salesman in 1989 and ran a Sinn Fein advice clinic from his premises, said he was approached by Mrs Nevin "five or six times" over a period of about a year "from some time in 1989 to some time in 1990".
He told the Central Criminal Court: "On the final time she came in, I said I didn't want to hear the subject ever again and I saw no more of her."
His evidence for the prosecution came on the 11th day of the trial, which also heard from a former cleaner at Jack White's Inn that in addition to seeing retired Garda Insp Tom Kennedy at the inn in the mornings, "the judge from Arklow" had visited and stayed there.
Mrs Nevin (48) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband Tom Nevin (54) on March 19th, 1996, in their home at Jack White's Inn, Ballinapark, near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow.
She has also pleaded not guilty to charges that 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.
Ms Jane Murphy of Redcross, Co Wicklow, told the trial that she worked as a cleaner at the inn from 1987 "until the day Tom was shot". She got on well with Tom Nevin, "a nice man", she said. Asked about Mr and Mrs Nevin's relationship, Ms Murphy said she thought they got on all right. Asked by Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, if she had witnessed anything in relation to it, she said she had, but said she could not tell about it.
Ms Murphy said she could re call phone calls to the inn. Asked who they were from, she replied: "Mr Ferguson, that's all, and the judge". The judge was "the judge from Arklow". Mr Ferguson had never come to visit. Asked had the judge, she said he had. She knew Mr Tom Kennedy, a garda inspector, now retired. "He used to be always there in the morning time," Ms Murphy told the court. Asked where he would stay, she replied: "He was upstairs a couple of times." Asked could she give further evidence, she said she couldn't think. There was no cross-examination.
After legal argument on an application before Ms Justice Carroll, the jury also heard yesterday from Mr Jones, one of the chief prosecution witnesses, of the allegation that Mrs Nevin solicited him to get the IRA to murder her husband. Mr Jones said he had a television rental and repair business in Finglas and had part of the premises used as an advice centre for Sinn Fein. He was no longer a member of the party.
"The first time I met Mrs Nevin would have been around '84 or '85," Mr Jones told Mr Charleton SC. "She came into the advice centre and said that she had been sent, recommended to us by one of our offices in Dublin, either Blessington Street or Parnell Square, and that she was looking for a pub to buy."
He said this approach was "very unusual". He told her he could not assist her, but he later learnt that she had got the lease of a pub in Finglas. Asked had he met her again, he said: "Oh, I saw her several times. In fact, she allowed us to use the pub for fundraisers and for selling An Phoblacht, the Sinn Fein newspaper." He said Mrs Nevin had no involvement in the party.
When Mrs and Mr Nevin bought Jack White's Inn, he visited it twice within a fortnight. He had not visited since, he said, "I had no reason to."
He said Mrs Nevin would use the opportunity of her attendance at the Mater Private Hospital for blood treatment to visit the advice centre. She would leave a note for Mr Jones if he was not there and ask him to join her in a pub-restaurant across the road for coffee. He met her "four or five times, maybe six times in the year, approximately", he said.
The first time she propositioned him to commit an offence, she came into the advice centre and spent over 45 minutes talking about "this and that". She then said: "I have a proposition for you." "Go ahead," he said.
"I want you to get the IRA to shoot Tom," she said. "That was it," Mr Jones said. "I just laughed it off at the time, I couldn't believe it."
This happened about 1989 and "there was another one five or six weeks later. I've no way of telling you the exact time as I did not keep a record of any of these things." That time she spoke of how her business was going. "She then said, `have you thought about the proposition?' I said `what are you talking about?' She said `I want you to get the IRA to shoot Tom in what would look like a botched hold-up."'
Mrs Nevin said it would be a bank holiday weekend and she would guarantee that there would be £23,000 or £25,000 available, Mr Jones said. He recalled being told that Tom would always make cash lodgements on the Tuesday after bank holidays at a bank either in "Rathgar, Rathmines or Rialto". "She said she would ensure that Tom was on his own and that the IRA could get him en route." Mr Jones went on: "I said I couldn't even think about it, it was beyond thinking about at all, it was nonsense." Cross-examined by Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, defending, Mr Jones said he left Sinn Fein in 1993 or 1994 and had not joined any similar organisation since.
The trial continues.