Three of the key prosecution witnesses in the trial of Catherine Nevin have begun libel proceedings against Independent Newspapers in the High Court.
Catherine Nevin was given a life sentence for murder over five years ago. She was also convicted of soliciting three men, John Jones, Gerry Heapes and Willie McClean, to murder her husband some years before he was shot dead in March 1996.
They all rejected her advances and offers of money, and the men were key witnesses at the trial.
Gerry Heapes claims he was libelled by the Evening Herald which called him a 'hired killer' in a sub heading on an article during the trial.
All three men claim they were defamed by an Irish Independent article, headlined 'Would be Hitmen' and by a Sunday Independent article entitled 'Court hears of request for hired killer'.
Senior Counsel, Garret Cooney, said his three clients were not killers, hired or otherwise.
When he opened the case to the High Court jury today, Mr Cooney said that in the 1970s Gerry Heapes was jailed for 10 years for armed robbery and John Jones had received a suspended sentence for receiving a stolen car.
The court also heard that Mr McClean, originally from Co Monaghan, had convictions for smuggling.
It was pointed out that in the course of the trial Miss Justice Melia Carroll had made an order restricting newspapers to reporting evidence in a factual manner.
Peter Charlton, the senior counsel who prosecuted the Nevin trial, gave evidence of the three men approaching him during the trial and being very upset at the newspaper articles.
He said Mr Jones had been trembling, Gerry Heapes was unable to sit down and Willie McClean was pacing the room.
He advised them to get independent legal advice and suggested a solicitor. He also raised the newspaper coverage with the trial judge.
Independent newspapers is denying the claims made by the three men and claim that the words complained of are privileged under the defamation act.
