Catherine Nevin

Background

Catherine Nevin (née Scully, born 1 October 1950) was an Irish woman convicted in 2000 of murdering her husband Tom Nevin at Jack White's Inn, a pub owned by the couple in County Wicklow.

Catherine Scully met Tom Nevin in Dublin in 1970 and they married in Rome in 1976. Within ten years, they owned two houses and managed a pub in Finglas, Dublin. In 1986, they opened Jack White's Inn.

The offence

On 19 March 1996, Tom Nevin was killed with a shot from a nine pellet shotgun while counting the day's takings in Jack White's pub near Brittas Bay in County Wicklow.

Catherine Nevin said that she was woken by someone pressing her face into a pillow. She said: "It was a man shouting: 'fking jewellery, fking kill ya'. He had a knife in his left hand. Everything in the room was coming down around."

£13,000 was taken from the pub. The Nevins' car was stolen and was found abandoned in Dublin.

Investigation

Neven was subject to significant coverage by the tabloid press. Justice Mella Carroll ordered a ban on the press commenting on Nevin's appearance or demeanour during the trial.

Trial

Catherine Nevin was convicted in Dublin's Central Criminal Court after a trial that resulted in guilty verdicts on charges of murder and soliciting others to murder.

The jury returned verdicts on Tuesday evening after being out for nearly five days, which was described as the longest deliberation period in the history of the Irish State. The verdicts were unanimous on the murder charge and were returned with an 11-1 majority on the other counts.

Nevin was convicted on the murder charge and on three charges of soliciting others to kill her husband Tom. After the jury returned its verdicts, Nevin was immediately handed a mandatory life jail term for the murder, but sentencing on the other charges was adjourned.

At the start of the proceedings in February, Nevin pleaded not guilty to killing her 54-year-old husband Thomas on St Patrick's Day weekend in 1996. She also denied three charges of soliciting men, two of them with hardline republican links, to carry out the murder.

The trial heard allegations by Nevin that her husband had been a member of the IRA, a homosexual, and a drunkard. The trial also heard evidence of allegations that the accused woman had affairs before the death of Mr Nevin with a local judge and a senior Irish police officer. Those affairs were denied in court by both the judge and members of Mr Nevin's family refuted suggestions that he had ever been in the IRA.

The court heard prosecution allegations that Nevin bore animosity to her husband and wanted control of their pub. It was claimed that Mr Nevin died in a botched robbery designed to conceal a contract killing carried out at the behest of his wife. The jury heard that Nevin approached a member of Sinn Fein to see if the IRA would carry out the killing.

The trial heard evidence from 170 witnesses and involved a three-day address from defence counsel Patrick MacEntee, SC.

The trial originally began in January but was abandoned when it was found that discussions among the jury could be heard in the public gallery of the court. A second trial was delayed for some days when Mrs Nevin was taken ill at the Dublin address where she had been staying during the court hearing.

Sentencing remarks

Miss Justice Mella Carroll told Nevin: "You had your husband assassinated, and you tried to assassinate his character as well. "I hope his family will take some consolation from this verdict."

Sentencing

Nevin was sentenced to life imprisonment on April 11, 2000.

Appeals

Neven later sought to have her murder conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

She was told at the Criminal Courts of Justice that there were no new relevant facts in her case. The trial judge said there was no basis on which to revisit the earlier judgement that found her guilty of soliciting the services of three men to kill her husband Tom on March 19, 1996.

Nevin's lawyer said Nevin was “very disappointed”, adding that she had “had great faith in that court to vindicate the constitutional right to a fair trial.” Nevin said the verdict would be appealed, “almost certainly” to the European Court of Justice.

The Court of Criminal Appeal had previously refused a request from Nevin’s legal team to access secret Garda intelligence files on the three men Nevin was found guilty of soliciting. It did order, however, that those secret files be made available to the three judges of the court.

Outcome

Neven lost her attempt to have her murder conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

Other details

Nevin was described as 49 at the time of the trial proceedings. The murder was described as taking place at Jack White’s Pub at Brittas, Co Wicklow, with reference to the pub being run in Ballinapark, County Wexford on the main road between Dublin and Rosslare.