Mick Clifford: A woman murdered in her own bedroom — and how the State treated her husband

Livingstone was still angry at how he’d been treated by the gardaí in the wake of his wife’s murder. He would in time claim that some members of the force had developed an “irrational fixation” that he was the perpetrator.

He was now wondering how to proceed, whether to highlight the case through the media or the courts.

We were brought into his office, a room converted from a garage. After we sat down, a black cat appeared through the door.

“I’m keeping that cat alive on drugs,” Livingstone said. “She was the last one to see Grace alive.”

It was a strange and arresting statement. The inference was that the cat knew the full story of how Grace Livingstone had been murdered, but so what? It’s not as if the cat could give evidence on the matter. I looked at the cat, wondering what secrets it might hold.

Nothing came of that meeting, but the occasion always stayed with me. It highlighted Livingstone’s odd disposition. 

Was it that oddness, that could express itself as curmudgeonly or intemperate, that prompted some gardaí to believe that he had murdered his wife?

It had to have been something because there was certainly a lack of evidence to point to him as the perpetrator.

Jim Livingstone died two weeks ago and was buried on June 24.

Grace Livingstone was last seen alive soon after 2pm on the afternoon she was murdered. She chatted with a neighbour at the porch of her home in the middle class estate, The Moorings, just outside the Co Dublin village.

After the chat she went back inside. She was 56, a mother of two. Conor, the couple’s son, lived with them. Their daughter Tara was living in France at the time.

Jim Livingstone was a senior tax inspector with the Revenue Commissioners. Later, colleagues would describe him as having a major appetite for work.

His investigations included a number into fuel smuggling and matters related to cross-border crime committed by various paramilitary factions.

He also investigated high end tax evasion schemes. In 2000, he would give evidence at the groundbreaking Oireachtas committee inquiry into bogus non-resident bank accounts.

Livingstone would always claim a suspicion that his wife’s murder was related to his work.

On the day in question, he travelled home from work with a colleague some time after 5.30pm, most likely closer to 5.50pm. He called the gardaí at 5.58pm after discovering his wife’s body.

She had been shot with Livingstone’s legally held shotgun which was subsequently found in the garden of the house. The only forensic clue was an unidentified fingerprint on the adhesive tape.

As part of the initial investigation, the house was searched and a total of eight firearms were recovered. Most of these were legally held. Livingstone’s father had been in the RIC and had subsequently become a firearms dealer. Jim inherited an interest in guns and spent time in the FCA.

The case received major media attention. Murders like this simply didn’t happen in Ireland.

Livingstone was interviewed by the investigating gardaí as a witness. At this point, one of the gardaí subsequently claimed, he was “less than co-operative” and had “an attitude problem”.

In the weeks that followed, suspicion continued to haunt the bereaved widower. Some of this was attributable to media stories obviously leaked by the gardaí pointing towards him.

On January 14, he arrived at Malahide Garda Station with the personal tax details of three gardaí, including the officer leading the murder investigation. Later, he would apologise for this, saying he was under severe pressure.

It would also emerge that some time previously he had threatened a colleague in the Revenue with a revolver. All of this, as far as some of the investigators were concerned, pointed towards a disposition that might make him capable of murder. Yet there was precious little evidence.

Then at 7.40am on March 3, 1993, Livingstone was arrested. TV cameras were in situ as he was brought from his home, en route to Swords Garda Station for questioning.

He was released the following day without charge. A file was compiled and submitted to the DPP in August 1993. Yet no charges were brought against him.

Review of the case

That same month, Detective Superintendent Tom Connolly was instructed to carry out a review of the case. Connolly was an old-school cop on the cusp of retiring after 40 years in the force.

He had been involved in some major cases throughout his career, including the Sallins mail train robbery and the murders of gardaí John Morley and Henry Byrne.

Early on in his review, he discovered that questionnaires, a basic tool in investigations such as this, had not been used to canvass any possible evidence in the neighbourhood.

He also noted that in conversations, one local senior officer was “continually telling me that Jim Livingstone was the culprit”, as Connolly related in his memoir, Detective.

Yet, Connolly’s investigation increasingly pointed to it being highly unlikely that Livingstone could have murdered his wife.

According to the theory being propagated by the original investigation, Livingstone killed his wife within minutes of arriving home.

Yet a number of people who entered the house soon after all related that they didn’t smell any shotgun residue, which would have lingered for some time after a discharge.

Also, two neighbours did report hearing a loud noise at around 4.40pm, which could account for the shooting. At this time, Livingstone was miles away in Dublin city centre at work.

“I put it to him [the original lead detective] that nobody in the locality reported hearing a shot, or a loud noise, at around 6pm,” Connolly remembered.

“He said, Livingstone used a pillow, to put over the gun and deaden the sound. We discussed the absence of firearm residue on Jim Livingstone’s clothing.

“He said that the clothing was in bags in the Forensic Science Laboratory for a few days and when they came to examine it it was too late; it had faded away. I checked this with the Forensic Science Laboratory, with the individual who examined the clothing, and they completely discounted that notion.”

What Connolly did discover as a result of his inquiries, allied to a subsequent appeal on RTÉ’s Crimeline programme, was that another man had been in The Moorings on the afternoon in question. He had been seen around 4pm, not long before the loud noise was heard.

One man was traced to England who admitted that he had been in Malahide on the day in question and had been seeing a woman who lived in The Moorings.

He denied ever meeting Grace Livingstone and voluntarily gave his fingerprints which did not match the print on the adhesive tape.

In the end, Tom Connolly concluded that the finger of suspicion that had been pointed at Jim Livingstone was not freighted with any real evidence.

“In the investigation file is a list of about 25 reasons why Jim Livingstone was the main suspect up until 25 August 1993 when the file was completed,” Connolly wrote.

“I went through each and every one of the reasons given, and came to the conclusion that, alone or collectively, they did not represent a shred of credible evidence to suggest that Livingstone had any hand, act or part in his wife’s death.”

There the matter rested. No further action was taken by the gardaí, no more investigation.

Livingstone brought an action against the State and An Garda Síochána for wrongful arrest. At one point, he approached Connolly and asked would he be willing to give evidence in any such action.

Connolly said he would because he felt duty bound to do so. He was, however, uncomfortable at the prospect. He still felt a loyalty to the organisation he had served for 40 years.

And his two sons were also serving gardaí. Yet, he felt that on the basis of his investigation he should give evidence if required.

In 2008, the action went to hearing. The plaintiff’s counsel, John Rogers, told the High Court that the gardaí’s obsession with Livingstone “blighted” the investigation into Grace’s murder. He said that his client had been arrested and abused in custody and had never recovered from the ordeal.

Before Livingstone’s own evidence could be heard, the case was settled. The court was told that the gardaí accepted that Jim Livingstone should be “entitled to full and unreserved presumption of innocence”.

No award was made to the plaintiff, but according to reports the State did agree to cover his legal costs.

Tom Connolly had attended the opening days of the action, ready to give evidence, but he was relieved it never came to pass.

Afterwards, Livingstone and his son and daughter said they were “very pleased” it was all over.

“This has been a long, long haul for all of us,” Livingstone told the assembled reporters. He said it had finally been established after 15 years that he was not a suspect for his wife’s murder.

“Those who heard the evidence over the past days will know what this family has suffered,” he said.

'The clouds are gone'

Grace’s murder and the years immediately after it “were dark days, and has been with us ever since. For now we would like to be given time to reflect on our cloud-free situation — the first time the clouds are gone.”

Tara and Conor said they were “delighted that this ordeal is finally over and that we feel justice has been done”.

Nobody was ever charged, or even arrested, for the murder of Grace Livingstone. 

The initial investigation had highlighted a failing that has occurred at various times over the last 50 years following a high-profile murder or crime.

Quite obviously, the gardaí determined that Livingstone was the perpetrator, based not on the assembly of evidence but on their hunch or a failure in the immediate aftermath to identify any other suspect.

That Jim Livingstone had a personality that inferred he was a bit odd, or unconventional, appears to have added to a conclusion that would subsequently be shown to be terribly flawed.

Livingstone was 70 when the legal action was settled and he continued to live quietly in retirement for the next 17 years until his death. Following his funeral he was buried next to his wife Grace.