Labour wants results of garda probe made public

Cormac O’Keeffe

Also, Justice Minister Michael McDowell was called on to set up a public inquiry into the garda investigation into the deaths of Sylvia Shields and Mary Callinan in March 1997.

The calls followed the unprecedented announcement yesterday that the gardaí was going to apologise to the family of Dean Lyons, who was charged with murder after signing highly-controversial confessions.

The announcement of the apology drew an angry response from the sister of Ms Shields. Her solicitor Michael Finucane said his client had received “neither apology nor explanation” into the circumstances surrounding the investigation.

He said he had written to Mr McDowell to demand a full public inquiry. Ms Shields, 58, and Ms Callinan, 61, were murdered on the grounds of St Brendan’s Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin. An internal garda investigation was set up into Mr Lyons’s confessions after another man, double-killer Mark Nash, made statements, in 1997, that he had carried out the murders.

Mr Lyons was released in April 1998 when the DPP dropped charges against him. The DPP’s decision was made after he received the internal garda investigation into the accuracy of Mr Lyons’s statements of admission. Mr Lyons died two years later from a heroin overdose, aged 27.

“The Minister for Justice should now take the opportunity to publish the internal inquiry into the debacle,” said Labour Justice spokesman Joe Costello.

“While I welcome the apology, it doesn’t wash away what was clearly an injustice. We need to know how it was a confession was elicited from Mr Lyons.”

Mr Costello said the internal inquiry would say who the gardaí are, where they are now and if any disciplinary action was taken.

It’s thought the garda apology was agreed between representatives for Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and legal representatives for Dean Lyons’s parents, John and Sheila. The apology is to be made through a national media ad.

A spokeswoman for Mr McDowell said the internal investigation could not be published as the garda murder probe was ongoing.