No blood stain on jacket

A forensic scientist told a murder trial jury yesterday that a mark on lino in a house where two women were killed 18 years ago was likely to have been made by a Caterpillar brand boot.

However, the court heard it was a newer boot than the boot attributed to the accused Mark Nash. The 42-year-old, formerly of Prussia St and Clonliffe Rd, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Sylvia Shields, 60, and Mary Callanan, 61, between March 6 and 7, 1997.

The women were living in sheltered accommodation attached to St Brendan’s Hospital in Grangegorman.