Senior gardai, The Irish Times has learned, argued strongly against the withdrawal of the murder charge against Dean Lyons for months after it had emerged that a second man - who was being questioned about other serious offences - had given a detailed statement about the Grangegorman murders.
The Chief State Solicitor's office yesterday withdrew a charge against Mr Lyons of murdering Ms Mary Callinan (61), who was stabbed to death along with Ms Sylvia Shields (59) on March 7th, 1997. Mr Lyons never faced the second charge of murdering Ms Shields despite being held in custody on the Callinan murder since July 26th last year.
The two women were found murdered in their bedrooms in a house attached to St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital. They had been beaten, stabbed and mutilated with knives and other kitchen implements. A third woman in the house was untouched, although the murderer went into her bedroom.
Gardai involved in the investigation against the second man felt there was compelling evidence in their case to indicate that Mr Lyons (24), a vagrant and heroin addict with no record of violence, was innocent.
However, the gardai in the Dublin North Central Division who had brought the charges against Mr Lyons maintained their stance and strongly disputed the findings of the other gardai.
Details of the second statement were published in The Irish Times on August 26th last year. There was no official comment from Garda Headquarters.
One senior officer rang The Irish Times to complain that the story was "nonsense" and should be retracted.
After the report in this newspaper, other media reports appeared quoting anonymous Garda sources. These said that senior gardai had dismissed the second statement. A further unattributed report claimed that the second man had withdrawn his statement.
No attempt was made by the authorities to release Mr Lyons on bail despite the indications that a major miscarriage of justice was taking place.
Mr Lyons, from Tallaght, has been in prison since July 26th last when he was arrested by gardaI from the Bridewell Station in Dublin who surrounded the Salvation Army hostel in Grangegorman, where he had temporary accommodation.
He was taken to the Bridewell Station and questioned by a small team of detectives. Initially, an attempt was made to elicit a statement in front of video and audio recording equipment in the station. It is understood, however, that Mr Lyons made no admission while being recorded - despite suggestions earlier by gardai that there was an admission on tape.
The admission upon which the DPP decided to proceed with the charge against Mr Lyons was in a written statement which emerged later that evening. The Irish Times has learned that that statement contains a number of apparent fictions.
There is a reference to his leaving the murder scene and walking down to Benburb Street and meeting a prostitute there. The statement suggests that there was a discussion with this woman about how he would dispose of his blood-soaked clothes.
It suggests that they then got a taxi to Inchicore, where they bought heroin and returned towards Grangegorman. The statement says he went to a derelict building, where he was sleeping rough, and changed into another set of clothes which he kept there.
The statement suggests that a man covered in blood would be able to approach a prostitute, take a taxi with her to Inchicore, buy heroin and return to a derelict building where he, a homeless man with no income and a severe drug habit, kept a change of clothes.
Gardai on the Lyons case questioned every known prostitute who works the Benburb Street area and none reported seeing a blood-covered man or of having heard of any such occurrence. Despite this lack of corroboration and the highly suspect nature of the "admission", the State proceeded on the basis of the uncorroborated admissions with a murder charge against Mr Lyons.
The statement contains an oblique reference to a woman with whom he claimed he had a relationship and with whom he had a child. The gardai eventually traced a woman after questioning Mr Lyons's relatives. The woman had been a girl he had known at school and about whom he had an infatuation. He had never had a relationship with her. They had not met since their schooldays and she had married and had a family, living for a while out of the country. The woman was questioned and confirmed she had not met Mr Lyons in years.
The parts of the statement where Mr Lyons apparently admits the murder may be the subject of further scrutiny. It is understood the statement contains details about the murders which had not been publicised in the media at the time. The Garda inquiry which opened last year after it emerged that Mr Lyons was almost certainly innocent is understood to have gathered evidence which senior officers believe will be sufficient to bring charges in relation to the Grangegorman killings against the second man. There was no indication yesterday of when this might take place.
It had been expected that Mr Lyons would be released earlier this year after an internal investigation led by Assistant Commissioner Jim McHugh reported in February. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions applied for Mr Lyons's further imprisonment on remand, and the District Court assented to this. No reason has been given for Mr Lyons's eight-month detention since gardai came into possession of the second statement. By contrast with Mr Lyons's arrest and interrogation, the second case involved a man who was captured last August in the act of holding an elderly woman hostage and threatening to injure or kill her. He was already wanted in connection with other serious offences committed outside Dublin.
It is understood that immediately after his arrest, while being brought to a Garda station, he made a tentative admission to the Grangegorman killings, saying he had killed two women in the Dublin area. He was subsequently questioned by two experienced officers with long track records of completing successful investigations. The man made admissions to the offences for which he had been arrested. He then asked to see a solicitor and volunteered a detailed admission about the Grangegorman killings. The detectives took down a statement which contained details about the Grangegorman murders which were never publicised and could only be known to a person who knew the interior layout of the house and where the women were sleeping.
In December he made what is described by prison sources as a half-hearted suicide attempt, and left a note in which he said he did not kill the women but had been walking past the house and went in after seeing a door open. Since then, it is understood, another person has come forward to say the man gave him another detailed account of killing the women.
On the basis of this and other evidence, it is understood, the gardai who reviewed the case are confident that charges can be brought against the second man.
It is not clear if any arm of the criminal justice system will further examine how Mr Lyons came to be wrongly charged with one of the worst murders in the history of the State, allowing the real culprit to remain free and a major threat to the community.