DNA to be reviewed in double murder case

Gardaí investigating the double murder of two women in Grangegorman, Dublin, eight years ago have begun a "cold case" review of the killings.

DNA samples gathered from the crime scene at the time will be subjected to new forensic techniques that have been developed since the murders.

Detectives are hoping the new DNA cold case approach will throw up evidence that may finally solve the murders and categorically link the chief suspect to the crime or firmly rule him out.

The samples to be retested have been stored at the forensic science laboratory at Garda headquarters since they were initially gathered. The preliminary results of the new DNA tests are expected to be known by gardaí in July.

If the results are conclusive, they will be added to the Garda file on the case already with the DPP, allowing for criminal charges to be pursued.

Sylvia Sheils (59) and Mary Callinan (61) were killed as they lay in their beds in a sheltered housing scheme on the grounds of Grangegorman hospital in March 1997. The two women were found with 30 stab wounds each from what appeared to have been a frenzied knife attack.

The investigation into the killings has been controversial. Gardaí initially charged a Dublin drug addict, Dean Lyons, with the murders after it was claimed he made an elaborate confession. However, the charges against him were later dropped.

Another man, Mark Nash, killed two people during a knife attack in Co Roscommon in August 1997 and later also confessed to the Grangegorman killings, though he later retracted this confession.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has come under pressure from the dead women's families to establish a tribunal of inquiry into the handling of the case. Mr McDowell has appointed barrister Shane Murphy to conduct a preliminary inquiry.

Its terms of reference are being finalised, according to Mr McDowell's spokeswoman. She said the Minister had no difficulty with the Garda's decision to revisit aspects of the evidence at the same time that an official inquiry was being put in place.

Mr McDowell had always hoped for a breakthrough in the case. He had not agreed to a full tribunal of inquiry, partly because he wanted gardaí to be given every opportunity to secure a conviction before the full details of the case were aired at a tribunal.

Nash killed a young Dublin couple, Carl and Catherine Doyle, in their rural home near Castlerea, Co Roscommon. Nash was visiting the couple with Catherine's sister, Sarah, with whom he was in a relationship at the time. Sarah was also found seriously injured in the remote house.

Nash, who is serving life for the Doyle murders, was born in Mayo in 1973, spent most of his life in England and moved to Dublin in 1995.

During the inquest in 2002 into the deaths of Ms Sheils and Ms Callinan, Nash was referred to as a suspect in the murders.

Despite Nash's confession to the Grangegorman murders, which was relayed to senior Garda officers in Dublin, Dean Lyons continued to be held on charges connected with them.

It was not until March 1998, seven months after the Nash confession, that the DPP dropped the charges against Mr Lyons, and he was released. He died in Manchester in September 2000 from a drug overdose.

Earlier this year the Garda took the unprecedented step of issuing a public apology to him and his family, which was published in the national media.