In the second day of giving evidence in her defence Mrs Catherine Nevin yesterday told the jury she never solicited three men to murder her husband.
She also denied having sexual affairs with former Garda inspector Mr Tom Kennedy, Judge Donnchadh O Buachalla or Mr William McClean, one of the men who has alleged she solicited him to murder her husband.
She said her relationship with her husband was far from the strictly business one that evidence in the trial has so far suggested. And she alleged that latenight meetings were hosted by her husband at Jack White's Inn on an average of once a month and that a man came to the inn at least twice and exchanged sterling notes for other money with her husband.
In the Central Criminal Court trial, Mrs Nevin (49) has denied the murder of her husband, Mr 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 on dates 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 McClean to murder her husband.
Continuing her evidence before the jury and Ms Justice Carroll, Mrs Nevin told her lawyer, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, she had "no contact" with Mr Heapes in the period between when she and her husband were operating the Barry House pub in Finglas, Co Dublin, and when they bought Jack White's Inn. She said it was Mr Nevin who introduced her to Mr Heapes and he talked to her husband "frequently".
She denied she had ever gone into the Sinn Fein advice centre in Finglas. She also denied she had "picked up" or sought the company of Mr McClean at the Red Cow Inn on the Naas Road, Co Dublin.
She denied she had a sexual affair with Mr McClean in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, or at Jack White's Inn. "No, I had no relationship at all with him", she said. "Ever?", her counsel asked. "No, never," she replied.
She said the couple's houses were used as collateral for the purchase of the inn in 1986. She sold her house on the South Circular Road, Co Dublin, in 1989 and the proceeds went to the Allied Irish Bank, which in turn advanced in the region of £80,000 to build a kitchen and full catering facilities at the inn. Jack White's traded as T & C Nevin, she said, and she and Mr Nevin were joint licensees and owners.
Mrs Nevin was asked about Garda custom at the inn. She told Mr MacEntee that three units from Arklow station used to be regular customers. In 1991, she said, a 15 1/2-year-old girl, whom she named, "was sexually assaulted by a policeman in the early hours of the morning in a patrol car".
She said a complaint was made and she and her husband had to make statements in connection with it to the investigating gardai. No prosecution arose, but afterwards the three units of Arklow gardai and, shortly after, gardai from Wexford and Gorey, stopped coming into the pub.
Mr MacEntee asked could she tell about some other "unpleasantness with a particular garda". Mrs Nevin said as a result of "a confidential statement" she had made she received notification that she was being taken to court by a detective garda who issued proceedings for defamation. This garda's name had been mentioned in her confidential statement to Supt Coffey.
Asked what the statement was about, Mrs Nevin said it was "in connection with something that had happened previously in the pub". Asked was it in connection with the complaint of sexual assault by the 15-year-old, she replied: "I don't think it was that complaint, his name was not mentioned in relation to that." She agreed the proceedings were not yet disposed of.
Mr MacEntee put into evidence the Wicklow Circuit Court civil bill showing a claim for damages for defamation taken against her by the detective. He also put into evidence a letter from a solicitor dated July 22nd, 1994, about the case.
Mrs Nevin said that as a result of those two matters Garda trade at the inn "disappeared altogether apart from anyone above the rank of sergeant".
She agreed she and her husband occupied separate bedrooms. "That had always been the case, my lord, from after we got married." To a question from Mr MacEntee about the couple's intimate relationship, she replied, "Well, if Tom and I wanted to make love, there was always a room available - two rooms."
Mr MacEntee asked was she saying they did make love. "Oh yes, frequently, yes," she replied. He put it to her that the evidence had been that she and Tom had a strictly business relationship. "Goodness, my lord, that's not so, far from it." Did she happen to remember the last time her husband and she made love? Mr MacEntee asked. "The 28th February prior to his death," she replied. "We had been out to dinner, it was my birthday."
She denied ever saying to John Jones that her husband was violent to her. "No, my husband was not violent. There was one occasion, where the circumstances were pretty unusual and my husband had a lot of drink taken, he did hit me," she said. This was about 1990. "Oh no, I wasn't damaged, no," she told counsel.
She said she never had bandages on her wrists or on the back of her hands. When she had cosmetic surgery on her eyes, she didn't have black eyes. "They were a little bit grey to the best of my knowledge, but it cleared up within a couple of days, four or five days."
Asked had she ever asked Mr Jones to arrange for the IRA to kill to Mr Nevin, the accused replied, "most definitely not". She also denied ever asking Mr Heapes to kill Mr Nevin or to get someone to kill him. She denied ever going with Mr Heapes to the Phoenix Park, to Clonee, Co Meath, to outside the flats she owned, or ever suggesting to him places where her husband could be killed. "No, there was no such conversation at all, it just never happened."
She denied showing Mr Heapes a bank book in the name of Catherine Scully. She agreed there was a bank book in her name. She said when she sold the house on the South Circular Road "the money went to the bank and Tom opened an account in my name in the AIB in Blanchardstown". He opened the account with £8,000", she said. She had never shown this book to Mr Heapes and he had never been in her car.
"I had no meetings whatsoever with Mr Heapes," she said. She saw Mr Heapes and Mr Pearse Moran twice at the inn talking to her husband. "It was something to do with business with Tom but I don't know the exact nature of the business." Had she had any conversation with him about the state of her marriage? Mr MacEntee asked. "Oh, I most certainly did not, no."
She remembered Mr Heapes coming to the inn sometime before Christmas one year. Her husband was not there and she spoke to Mr Heapes, who asked if they had a flat to rent as he and his wife were having problems. "I just told him that I'd pass on the information to Tom. I took down his telephone number, it was more to get rid of him than anything else."
She said that when Mr Nevin heard he was "very, very upset, very annoyed over it".
"He said under no circumstances whatsoever would he let a flat to him, under no circumstances whatsoever." Because Mr Heapes used to be in prison it would draw attention to the flat and he didn't regard him as suitable tenant. She said she crossed out Mr Heapes's telephone number "there and then".
She denied it was crossed out on the front and back of the page only after gardai saw it at the inn on April 12th, 1996. She said she definitely crossed it out on the front of the page after Mr Heapes's visit, and didn't know if Mr Nevin did anything after that to it.
She also denied the allegation of Mr McClean that she solicited him at St Vincent's Hospital to kill her husband or that she told him there that she would get the pub and the insurance money after her husband's death. She did not make any telephone calls to Mr McClean, nor he did visit her in hospital.
She agreed she met financial consultant Mr Patrick Russell to discuss accounting problems at the inn. A Revenue inspection had shown "a slight discrepancy" in the PAYE/PRSI figures, she said. Mr Nevin told her he wrote out a cheque for £2,500 to cover the mistake. He blamed the accountants, Coopers & Lybrand, who, he said, should have spotted the error in their audit. She said as a result of the discrepancy and charges levied by Coopers & Lybrand, she refused to sign the 1995 accounts for the business "until I got a satisfactory explanation".
She said that when Mr Russell introduced her and her husband to the accountant, Mr Noel Murphy, Mr Nevin was "very happy" that the PAYE/PRSI system would be computerised and he wouldn't have to spend as much time doing the books. After Mr Murphy and her husband met on the Thursday before his murder, they agreed an arrangement and later she did sign the accounts, after her husband's death.
Mrs Nevin also denied ever having a sexual affair with retired Garda Insp Tom Kennedy. She said that a few times when she was sick he came in to visit her in her bedroom, and sat on a chair talking to her. There was never an occasion when he had his shirt off in her room or was in her bed, she said. "My late husband and myself were very, very friendly with Tom and his family. He was a great help to us in the business." she said. She said one example was where they would supply the dates of birth of prospective staff and Mr Kennedy would "check out their backgrounds".
Mr MacEntee put to her the allegations concerning herself and Judge O Buachalla. "That's absolutely rubbish," she said. Judge O Buachalla and his wife were very friendly with Tom and her and the judge had brought a lot of business to the inn through his golfing connections.
She had never shown any inappropriate affection to the judge, nor had he ever been in her bedroom. Judge O Buachalla never had a set of keys to the inn and she denied ever saying he did.
Asked had Mr McClean ever stayed overnight at Jack White's Inn, she said he hadn't to her knowledge, though he might have had on the night of the pub's opening. "I was talking to Cathal Goulding for quite a while. Cathal was a very, very good friend of mine," she said. Mr Goulding stayed overnight in one of the attic rooms, she agreed. "I stayed downstairs in my bedroom." "Alone?" asked Mr MacEntee. "Yes," she replied.
Mrs Nevin also told the trial of late-night meetings at Jack White's Inn. She said her husband would tell her a meeting was due and she would go to bed early on those nights. The meetings would begin after 1 a.m. or 1.30 a.m. They started in 1987 or 1988. Two carloads of people would attend and Mr Nevin would let them in. The meetings took place "on average once a month", she said and, to the best of her knowledge, there were just men there.
Sometimes the meetings would be argumentative and this would give rise to her hearing things. "It was always about money," she said. Occasionally, one or two of the men would stay until morning in the Blue Room next to her bedroom, but they would be gone before the staff arrived.
She said "money was exchanged for other money" when a man visited her husband at the inn. She said sterling was always kept in the timelock safe in the storeroom and around £5,000 in Irish money.
"It was money that was kept, had to be kept for an exchange, it was exchanged for other money," she said. "Someone would come to collect it."
For the prosecution, Mr Peter Charleton SC pointed out that Det Sgt Fergus O'Brien had been specifically recalled at the request of the defence, but he was never asked if £3,141 found in that safe by gardai and counted at Arklow station had included sterling notes.
Mrs Nevin told her counsel the same man came to exchange the money. "He always wore a long coat when I saw him. He was in his late 30s, perhaps 40, receding hair, fair hair and he sometimes wore a cap." The last time he came was in February 1996.
The trial continues before the jury and Ms Justice Carroll.