A man has asked the High Court to stop his trial for the murder of two women at Grangegorman 14 years ago.
Mark Nash, originally from Huddersfield in the UK, was charged in October 2009 with the double murders of Mary Callanan (61) and Sylvia Shields (60) at their sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman, close to St Brendan’s Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin between March 6th and 7th, 1997.
Lawyers for Nash today brought judicial review proceedings aimed at securing an order prohibiting the trial on grounds including delay in charging him, the nature of pre-trial publicity surrounding the case and the unavailability of witnesses including former state pathologist John Harbison and the late Dean Lyons, who had been charged with the murders in 1997.
In his action, Nash argues the delay in bringing charges against him for offences has violated his rights to an expeditious trial under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights.
Siobhan Phelan, for Nash, told Mr Justice John Hedigan the delay was “inordinate and inexcusable” and carried a serious risk of her client being denied the right to a fair trial.
Counsel also criticised the manner in which key forensic evidence was gathered and maintained over a period between 1997 and 2009 and submitted the nature of pre-trial publicity had prejudiced her client’s rights.
The court was told another man, Dean Lyons, who died in September 2000, was charged with the two murders in 1997. After an investigation, a public apology was made in 2005 to Mr Lyons’s family stating he had no involvement in the Grangegorman murders.
Ms Phelan said disclosure of evidence by the State against her client had been piecemeal and he continued to receive documentation “more or less drip-feed” from the prosecution.
Seeking full disclosure of three categories of documents from the DPP, Ms Phelan said her side was seeking details of all persons suspected of being involved in the Grangegorman murders. The defence had a list of names, one of whom was Dean Lyons, and another two people who were also not available to give evidence.
“We have identified people who we believe were suspects and we sought further particulars and that has not been forthcoming,” she said.
They were also seeking documents to allow the defence to locate all the witnesses who were interviewed as part of the double murder investigation together with details of all conferences, reviews and meetings between the Garda investigation team, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Forensic State Laboratory in relation to the laying of the murder charges against Nash.
Una Ni Raifeartaigh SC, for the DPP, said there was concern the requests for documents surrounding the case was the “worst kind of trawling expedition” and the categories of documents being sought were “most extraordinary” in their scope. The trial court was the appropriate forum for such disclosure, she said.
In answering the complaints of delay, counsel said the case could not proceed in the absence of certain forensic evidence and that did not emerge until 2009.
The case continues tomorrow.