A serving member of An Garda Síochána has admitted to disclosing the contents of a confidential report on the Dean Lyons case almost three years ago.
Detective Sergeant Robert McNulty (50), of The Close, Boden Park, Rathfarnham pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
He was charged that on a date between July 10th and August 10th, 2006, he disclosed the contents of the draft report, pursuant to Section 34 of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 into the Dean Lyons case, without the consent of the commission.
The report was compiled after an inquiry chaired by George Birmingham SC under the Commissions of Investigations Act, 2004.
Judge Patricia Ryan remanded Det Sgt McNulty on continuing bail to a date next month for sentence when all evidence in the case will be heard.
The charges relate to a story which appeared in the Evening Heraldnewspaper in August 2006. The paper revealed the findings of Mr Birmingham's draft report, the final version of which was not due for publication until a month later.
Mr Lyons, a homeless drug addict, was wrongfully charged with a double murder he did not commit. Mr Lyons was arrested and questioned about the killings of psychiatric patients Sylvia Shiels and Mary Callinan in March 1997. They were found stabbed to death in their beds in sheltered accommodation at Grangegorman.
He was later wrongfully charged after making a "confession" to gardaí. Sgt McNulty was involved in the Garda investigation of Mr Lyons.
Charges against Mr Lyons were dropped in 1998 shortly after another man, Mark Nash, admitted to the murders.
Nash, who was imprisoned separately for the murder of a couple in Roscommon in August 1997, later withdrew his confession to the Grangegorman murders and was never charged.
Mr Birmingham was asked by the Government to investigate the circumstances under which Mr Lyons was charged.
He concluded that Mr Lyons, now deceased, had not been ill-treated by gardaí and there had been no attempt to frame him. However, his report criticised gardaí over incomplete interview records, which could have led to a miscarriage of justice.