A murder trial jury has heard that a Garda sergeant had reservations about a man who was originally charged with a 1997 double murder in Dublin as he was “a bit of a Walter Mitty”.
Dean Lyons, now deceased, was the first person who made an independent admission to the murder of Sylvia Shields (60) and Mary Callanan (61) in March 1997 in sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman. He was charged with the murder of the women in July 1997.
Mark Nash (42), who has last addresses at Prussia Street and Clonliffe Road in Dublin, was later charged in connection with the murders. He has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Ms Shields and Ms Callanan between March 6th and 7th, 1997.
Door key
The court yesterday heard how a door key, identified as belonging to Ann Mernagh, who lived in the same sheltered accommodation as Ms Shields and Ms Callanan, was located in a garden in the aftermath of the murders.
Patrick McGrath SC, defending, told the court how Mr Lyons pointed out a hedge at a house on Rathdown Road in Grangegorman where he said he threw the key upon exiting the women’s house at Orchard View. Mr McGrath then read the court a statement dated July 26th, 1997 in which Mr Lyons said: “I then left through the front door, there was a key in the lock with a tag on it, when I left the house I threw it into the bushes.”
Reservations
Under cross-examination for the majority of the day from Mr McGrath, Assistant Garda Commissioner Derek Byrne told the court:“My understanding is a young girl who is now deceased found a key in her front garden and brought it to the attention of her mother, who returned it to gardaí, and it was understood to be Ann Mernagh’s key.”
The jury of six men and five women heard how a garda, Sgt Dominic Cox, had reservations charging Mr Lyons and he said in his statement at the time: “We should be careful of Dean Lyons as he was a bit of a Walter Mitty.”
Mr Lyons first retracted his murder confession in a letter in September 1997, and in 1999 an official retraction was made by gardaí.
Mr McGrath told the court how a man named Martin Stafford, who is serving a life sentence in the UK for the murder of a woman, was of considerable interest during the Grangegorman investigation.
Mr Byrne said he “didn’t pay any particular attention to Martin Stafford” as a suspect then or now as “he had been eliminated from the inquiries”.
The trial continues.