A senior Garda officer has been appointed to investigate the circumstances which resulted in a Dublin heroin addict being wrongly accused of one of the most gruesome murders in the history of the State.
Mr Dean Lyons, the Dublin man who was wrongly accused of murdering one of two elderly psychiatric patients in Grangegorman in March last year, was still in custody last night despite having had the charge withdrawn.
It is understood that Mr Lyons remains in custody in Arbour Hill Prison on a number of charges alleging attempted robbery with the use of a syringe. No attempt was made to free him yesterday, although he has spent nine months in prison charged with a murder he did not commit.
The charge of murdering Ms Mary Callinan (61), who was killed along with her friend, Ms Sylvia Shields (59), in their home attached to St Brendan's Hospital on March 7th, 1997, was withdrawn during an appearance which lasted only a few seconds in Dublin District Court.
A lawyer from the Chief State Solicitor's office told the court: "I am instructed to tell the court that a decision has been taken not to proceed in this case and to make an application to withdraw the charge."
The application was granted by Judge Con O'Leary, and Mr Lyons, who was hunched and extremely pale, was led back down to the cells in the Bridewell.
He has been in custody since last July 26th when he was arrested by gardai from the Bridewell station and interrogated about the double murder. He was charged two days later on the basis of a statement which is known to contain false information.
Less than a month later - after another incident involving murders and attempted murders - gardai outside Dublin questioned another man, who made a detailed admission of the Grangegorman murders.
???i who charged Lyons insisted on proceeding, with and the charge against him and the murder charge against him stood until yesterday morning.
In a statement yesterday the Garda said that with the withdrawal of the charge against Lyons, Assistant Commissioner Jim McHugh had been appointed to "pursue his inquiries with a view to establishing the circumstances which resulted in Dean Lyons being charged with the said crime."
The investigation is expected to clarify how Mr Lyons's admission came about. It is also known that Mr Lyons suffers from a psychiatric condition which causes him to seek attention even where this means telling exaggerated stories about himself.
It is understood he was arrested after he had told other heroin addicts that he knew details of the Grangegorman murders.
Mr Lyons was a slow learner at school. He is understood to have a medical record which says he suffers from Munchausen's Syndrome, a condition where a patient persistently tries to seek hospital treatment for imaginary ailments.
Friends of Mr Lyons (24), who has lived rough in Dublin for the past five years, say they never believed he could have committed the murders. The women were battered and stabbed to death by someone with considerable strength. Mr Lyons, a heroin addict, is frail and would have been unable to commit acts requiring such strength.
No comment on the case was forthcoming yesterday from the DPP, the Chief State Solicitor's Office, the Department of Justice, or from Mr Lyons's solicitor or his family.
Another Garda investigation is understood to be attempting to discover how information about the Lyons case was leaked to the media.