Catherine Nevin has finished giving evidence at her murder trial in the Central Criminal Court. She again denied any suggestion that she had ever told anyone she was not getting on with her husband and wanted him dead. The final stages of this trial, now in its 28th day, are expected to begin tomorrow with a closing speech from the prosecution.
Catherine Nevin spent six days in this witness box in the Central Criminal Court, undergoing twenty hours of questions from her own lawyer, Patrick McEntee, and the prosecuting counsel, Peter Charlton. She claimed that she loved her husband, had a good marriage for 20 years and never asked anyone to kill him. She claimed that he was an alcoholic and a member of the IRA, a private man, a very good and a decent man.
Challenged on several aspects of her evidence by the prosecution, Mrs. Nevin insisted that she was telling the truth. She had no recollection of ever describing ex-Garda Inspector Tom Kennedy as anything but a friend. She claimed that she never told staff they could not return to Jack White's Inn the night of Tom Nevin's murder and denied she had cleared the premises to facilitate her husband's assassination. Mrs Nevin said that she never asked John Jones, Gerry Heapes or William McClean to kill her husband. She claimed that she only knew these men through her husband.
Two other defence witnesses followed Mrs Nevin. Both testified that, between three and four in the morning of 19 March 1996, they saw two cars outside Jack White's Inn. The defence case is expected to conclude in the morning. After that, both legal teams will make their closing speeches. This will be followed by Miss Justice Mella Carroll's charge to the jury, before sending them out to begin their deliberations. However, it could still be sometime next week before this jury returns a verdict.
