Labour calls for fresh Grangegorman murders probe

An investigation should be launched into two unsolved murders in Grangegorman, Dublin on the grounds of “profound public interest”, it was claimed tonight.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte questioned the Justice Minister’s decision to rule out a public inquiry into the deaths despite the fact that two people had confessed to the same crime.

Sylvia Shiels, 58, and 61-year-old Mary Callinan were stabbed to death in their sheltered housing accommodation at St Brendan’s psychiatric hospital in Dublin in March 1997.

A homeless drug addict, Dean Lyons, was questioned and remanded in custody, charged with murder.

Mr Rabbitte told the Dáil he was questioned on video and “gave a pretty inconsequential statement” but when the video was turned off he made a confession to the two murders expressed in the kind of detail and language he would not have known “unless it had been fed to him”.

“Subsequently another man admitted to what appeared to be the same crime,” he said. “So we have two people confessing to a crime that only one could have committed.”

Labour claims it has never been made clear why a prosecution was not taken against Mark Nash who is currently in Arbour Hill prison for the murder of Roscommon couple Carl and Catherine Doyle.

Mr Lyons was later released and the charged dropped. But Mr Rabbitte said it was not satisfactory that seven years on nobody had been charged, describing it as a “shameful” way to treat the families involved.

“The fear is in the public domain,” he said. “That a suspect was readied up for a terrible crime that he didn’t commit.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he believed an investigation had not been ordered because the case was still open with gardaí but promised to discuss the matter with Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

Mr Rabbitte said the internal Garda inquiry had never been made public and asked whether, by leaving the case open, the intention was that an inquiry could never be launched.

He said he was not asking for a public inquiry but a speedy, efficient investigation into a matter of profound public interest.

“There are 750 civil actions extant against the gardaí,” he said. “I think there is a lot of public disquiet about the case.”