In the Catherine Nevin murder trial, a former Sinn Féin member has claimed that Mrs Nevin asked him to get the IRA to shoot her husband. John Jones from Balbriggan in Dublin said that she made the requests to him around 1989. Another witness told the court that a person she described as "the judge from Arklow" used to visit and stay at the pub Jack White's Inn in County Wicklow.
John Jones ran a TV rental and repair shop in Finglas in Dublin and allowed part of the premises to be used as a Sinn Féin Advice Centre. He said that he knew Catherine Nevin since about 1984, and even after she moved to Wicklow, he saw her about five or six times a year up to 1990. Mr Jones said that, on one occasion, she came to the advice centre with a proposition for him. Mrs Nevin asked him to get the IRA to shoot Tom.
During another conversation she told him she wanted the IRA to shoot Tom Nevin during a botched hold up. She said that, after a bank holiday weekend, there would be takings of up to £25,000 pounds and Tom Nevin lodged the money on Tuesday's in Dublin. She suggested the IRA would get him en route to the bank. Asked about a possible motive, Mr Jones said that Mrs Nevin once came to the shop with black eyes and bandaged hands and told him Tom had done it.
When Mrs. Nevin continued to ask John Jones about her proposition he told her to drop the subject and he never saw her again. Under a probing cross-examination by Defence Counsel Patrick McEntee, John Jones said that his business partner in the TV repair business was Desmond Ellis, who, he said, was imprisoned for bomb-making and IRA membership.
A former cleaner at the pub Jane Murphy said in evidence today that she had taken calls from a Mr Fergusan and "the Judge". On further questioning, she described the second man as "the Judge from Arlow" and, when asked if he used to visit or stay, Ms Murphy replied "Yes". She also said that Inspector Tom Kennedy was always there in the morning time. Catherine Nevin denies the murder of her husband Tom Nevin and three charges of soliciting three men to kill him.
