Mark Nash told garda to stay away or he would kill her, trial hears

A man on trial accused of a 1997 double murder warned a garda who approached him to stay away or he would kill her, a jury has heard.

Mark Nash (42), who had last addresses at Prussia Street and Clonliffe Road in Dublin, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Sylvia Shields (60) and Mary Callanan (61) between March 6th and March 7th, 1997

They lived in sheltered accommodation in a house attached to St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital in Grangegorman in Dublin 7.

Three gardaí from Mill Street Garda station in Galway gave evidence about seeing Mark Nash pushing a bicycle on the Tuam Road in Galway on August 16th, 1997.

Brendan Grehan SC for the State, called his first witness, Garda Caroline McKenna, who is formerly of Mill Street station in Galway but is now on a career break from the force.

The court heard she and student Gda Raymond Wimms were passengers in a patrol car being driven by now retired Gda Gerry Curtain on the day in question.

They were driving along Two Mile Ditch on the Tuam Road at about 7.30pm when they came across a man pushing a bicycle. He fitted the description of a man wanted for the serious assault of a woman in Roscommon that day.

Ms McKenna told the court how the driver stopped the car and she got out with Gda Wimms to approach Mr Nash.

When she asked him his name, he replied: “I’m Nash, stay away or I’ll kill you.”

“With that Mr Nash put his hand into his pocket. I thought he was about to produce a knife but it was a hammer,” said Ms McKenna.

She told Mr Grehan how the accused threw the bicycle over to the side of the road and run off.

“Nash started to walk back towards the Tuam direction in the middle of road, there was traffic on the road, I was fearful he would try to hijack a car so I started waving cars on to keep them moving,” she continued.

Ms McKenna told the court Mr Nash was then knocked down by a van, but quickly jumped up, picked up his hammer and used it to smash the window of the van.

Mr Nash then ran up a lane beside a house and the gardaí gave chase.

“He grabbed an elderly lady and pulled her into the front of her house through the porch area, but her son managed to come out and pushed Nash onto the street,” she said.

Gda Curtain arrested Mark Nash at 7.45pm and took him to Mill Street Garda station, she said.

Mr Curtain told the court he pulled up the patrol car that day as Mr Nash fitted the description of the man who had assaulted Sarah Jane Doyle in Roscommon. "I was on the look out for him. She was in Beaumont hospital, I was aware of this."

Defence counsel Patrick McGrath SC asked Mr Curtain did he remember Mr Nash suffering a wound to his head. “The wound resulted from him being hit by a Garda baton,” added Mr McGrath.

The witness said he did not recall Mark Nash having a wound to his head or a baton being used.

Mr McGrath told the court a doctor who examined Mr Nash at the Garda station said he had a laceration on his head, an abrasion on his face as well as three superficial abrasions over his fingers and an abrasion on his knee.

Gda Wimms later told the court he saw Gda Curtain using his baton on Mr Nash.

“Gda Curtain would have struck him more than one blow, on the upper body probably, Gda Curtain was behind me, as we were struggling with Nash, Gda Curtain used his baton, I couldn’t say how many times. I just remember seeing the baton coming in from the side.”

The trial continued in legal argument, with evidence set to resume next Tuesday.