Catherine Nevin (née Scully) is an Irish woman who was convicted in 2000 of murdering her husband Tom Nevin at Jack White's Inn, a pub owned by the couple in County Wicklow. The jury in her trial also found her guilty on three charges of soliciting others to kill him after five days of deliberation, then the longest period of deliberation in the history of the Irish State.[1][2] Nevin was the subject of significant coverage by the tabloid press and Justice Mella Carroll ordered a ban on the press commenting on Nevin's appearance or demeanour during the trial.[3]
Doubts have been raised about the safety of Nevin's conviction and her lawyers say that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.[3]
Catherine Scully met Tom Nevin in Dublin in 1970 and they were married in Rome in 1976. Within ten years, they owned two houses and managed a pub in Finglas, Dublin. In 1986, they opened Jack White's Inn.[4]
On 19 March 1996, Tom Nevin was killed with a shot from a nine pellet shotgun while counting the day's takings in Jack White's pub near Brittas Bay in County Wicklow. According to Catherine Nevin, she was woken by someone pressing her face into a pillow. She said: "It was a man shouting: 'f**king jewellery, f**king kill ya'. He had a knife in his left hand. Everything in the room was coming down around." IR£13,000 was taken from the pub, and the Nevins' car was stolen and was found abandoned in Dublin.[4]