Mr Tom Nevin's black Opel Omega car was the focus of other evidence yesterday. Mr Eamon Cosgrave, formerly of Charlemount Gardens, Dublin, said he was alerted to the fact that the car was one he had just seen in Dartmouth Square, Ranelagh, when he heard it mentioned on the radio at 5 p.m. on the day of the killing, March 19th, 1996.
He immediately reported it to gardai in Harcourt Terrace. Garda Derek Gleeson, of Donnybrook station, said that when he went to check the car at 5.20 p.m. on March 19th, he found it unlocked and with a set of keys in the ignition.
Mr Thomas Zagorc, of Dartmouth Square, said the car was not there when he arrived home after dropping his daughter to school at 8.55 a.m. but was there when he went out to check for post at 10.30 a.m.
Ms Sarah Mansfield, who lived in a flat in Dartmouth Square, said the car was not there at 8.50 a.m. Mr Michael Nolan, of Mount View Road, Ranelagh, said he noticed a black Opel Omega parked in Upper Grand Canal Street, about a mile from Dartmouth Square, at between nine and 9.30 a.m.
Mr Tom McHugh said he saw a "large, black, full-size saloon car" take a sharp right turn into Dartmouth Square at about 6.45 a.m. that day.
A resident of Ballyduff, Ashford, Co Wicklow, Ms Mary Power, said she was twice alerted by her three dogs as a black saloon car reversed into her drive, the first time after 3 a.m., the second, at 4.10 a.m., also on the 19th.
Ms Power said there were two men inside, one clean-shaven, the other she could not see, but both were wearing light-coloured shirts and in were their 30s. After a few minutes, they drove away westwards, in the direction of Glendalough, "very fast".
Another witness, Mr Donal O'Leary, said he saw a black car passing a truck "rather wildly" at Mount Ussher Gardens, Wicklow, at around 4 a.m.
Mr Kenneth Cole, of Greystones, said he saw a black Opel Omega with a 92D registration plate at 3.35 a.m. or 3.40 a.m. at the junction in Cabinteely, Dublin. He saw one man in the car, who was about 30, with "bushy, wiry, reddish/blondish hair".
Mr Neil Murray said he left for work at 7.07 a.m. from Wicklow town. He saw a black Omega trying to overtake another car twice on the Dublin side of Ashford. The driver of the car was stocky, in his mid-to-late 30s, with "brownish" hair.
Another driver, Mr John Green, from Wexford, described a black Omega overtaking his van between 7.30 a.m. and 7.45 a.m. at Kilmacanogue, near Greystones.
The trial continues today before Ms Justice Carroll and a jury.