The decision of the State to withdraw a murder charge against Mr Dean Lyons at Dublin District Court yesterday should be a source of grave disquiet to every citizen who is concerned about civil liberties and the reputation of the Garda Siochana. Mr Lyons, a 24 year-old man from Tallaght, Co Dublin, had been wrongly accused of murdering one of two elderly psychiatric patients at Grangegorman in March of last year. Remarkably, he remains in the custody of the State on charges alleging attempted robbery with the use of a syringe - even though he has already spent nine months in prison charged with a murder he did not - and could not - have committed. The facts of the case bear repetition; Mr Lyons was charged with the gruesome murder of 61 year-old Mary Callinan on the basis of a statement he had made while in Garda custody "admitting" to the crime. For the Garda, it was a satisfactory outcome to a high-profile investigation. Less than a month later, there was some embarrassment in Garda circles when another man made a very detailed admission to the Grangegorman murder. It included precise details of the crime which could only have been known to the killer. All sorts of elaborate theories were advanced by some Garda sources to cast doubt on this second confession. There were suggestions that Mr Lyons had given him some of the details; a report by the security correspondent of this newspaper which pointed to the potential problems with the Lyons' `confession' was dismissed by some Garda sources and some other media.
Several questions now suggest themselves. What precise elements in Lyons' statement persuaded the DPP to press charges? How can the Garda explain a litany of false and uncorroborated information in the statement? Why did Lyons continue to remain in custody, even after an internal investigation by an Assistant Garda Commissioner in February concluded that his `confession' was unsafe? The Lyons' case also raises renewed questions about the vulnerability of marginalised people who are taken into Garda custody. Mr Lyons, a heroin addict and a person with learning difficulties, has been living as a vagrant for most of his adult life. There are chilling echoes here of other, more high profile miscarriage of justice cases in Britain, many of which involved those on the fringes of mainstream society. In a week which brings the prospect of a mass walk-off from their jobs by rank and file members of the Garda, the case of Mr Lyons is perhaps unlikely to be a priority concern with many citizens who wonder how safe their businesses and homes will be on Friday. But the case must, at the very least, raise wider concerns about Garda operating procedures. In the wake of an episode which must cause the force's reputation to come under critical scrutiny, it is ironic that its members of garda rank intend to perpetrate a collective and serious lie by calling in sick on Friday. It is regrettable in the extreme that they seem to have no awareness of the lasting damage they will inflict upon their own standing and long-term reputation. There is yet time for them to pull back.