FINE Gael councillor Bill Tormey said he had a moral obligation as a "humanitarian" to speak to Catherine Nevin in prison when he was asked to read her an article on her conviction.

The Beaumont hospital consultant was referenced in court last week when the so-called 'Black Widow' was clear­ed on charges of having a mobile phone in her cell.

During evidence a prison guard told the court she heard a message on the phone from Tormey, although judge Aeneas McCarthy said the chain of evidence did not link up sufficiently to convict.

Tormey confirmed he had spoken to the convicted killer and insisted he felt a moral duty "as a human being" to read her the article.

"Morally I don't see anything wrong with it. I spoke to her as a humanitarian," he said.

"The amount of time I spent talking to Catherine Nevin [was insignificant].

"All I did was read out John Waters' article in the Irish Times which maintained that the Tom Nevin conviction, that there might be questions over the validity of the conviction."

Tormey, who is a likely Fine Gael general election candidate and who was last week appointed chairman of the HSE forum for Dublin north and north-east, said he had no prior relationship with Nevin.

"I never spoke to Catherine Nevin before or since. I never met Catherine Nevin.

"It was someone with a rural accent [on the phone]. I assumed it was her and then I just started reading the article.

"The phone was grabbed off her in the middle of it," he said.

"The only thing was that it was the content of the article and, as a human, would you think it was reasonable to read out something that maintained that a conviction might be questioned?

"Would you think it reasonable to read that out?"