Pat Russell, alias John Ferguson/Fergus, was in the witness box explaining his association with Catherine, which had to do with her desire to get rid of her present accountants, Coopers & Lybrand. He had been phoning Jack White’s Inn regularly for a number of weeks prior to the murder. As we have seen, Catherine had issued prior instructions to staff to get her immediately when he phoned, and also to man the extension (and to make sure nobody else was listening in) when she was speaking to him. His name was not to be mentioned to anyone else.
He said he first met Catherine in the Sinn Féin advice centre in Finglas around 1985. He had been an active member of Sinn Féin but began to dissociate himself from them in the late 1980s. He knew John Jones through Sinn Féin and also from the advice centre. He kept in touch with the Nevins, and called into Jack White’s Inn occasionally after Tom and Catherine had taken over ownership of it. He was aware that Catherine was trying to get someone to murder her husband.
Catherine made contact with him by phone and asked if he would take on the financial accounts for her. He wasn’t keen on doing this, and in any event wasn’t qualified to sign an audit. They had a meeting in the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, in January 1996. She was alone, and told him that Tom was drinking heavily, and wasn’t as actively involved in the running of the pub as he should be. She wanted to buy his share of it but knew that Tom would never consent to this. Could he fix her up with new accountants, she enquired.
Russell agreed to try and arrange a meeting between her and a new firm as soon as possible. It was evident that Tom was to be left in the dark about changing accountants, as she issued firm instructions to him about making contact by phone with her at the pub. He should speak only to her, and use the pseudonym ‘John Fergus’. Under no circumstances was he to use his real name or speak to anyone other than her.
As a result of their meeting in January, he had been in contact with Noel Murphy, an accountant with Paffrey Murphy chartered accountants in Cork city. He set up meetings between Catherine and Noel Murphy, but she failed to turn up for the first meeting. The rearranged meeting was to be held at his office. She gave a firm commitment to attend and would, she stated, be accompanied by her husband, Tom. At the meeting, Catherine was present but without her husband, whom she stated was still in bed when she had left for Dublin. A lengthy meeting ensued, and Russell understood that there would be a further meeting, at which Tom would be in attendance. On the morning of Tom’s murder, Noel Murphy phoned the pub on a number of occasions but got a continuous engaged tone, and was unaware of the happenings there until he heard about it on an RTÉ news bulletin. Murphy then phoned him. So ended his evidence.
The significance of these meetings is obvious, and the jury may have noted Catherine’s devious intentions. She wanted to buy Tom out as late as January 1996, but he wouldn’t sell. Two months later, he was murdered, and she became the sole owner. Success, it would appear, was Catherine’s at last.