Mark Nash loses High Court bid to move prison

Convicted murderer Mark Nash has lost his High Court bid to be returned from Midlands Prison to Arbour Hill prison, Dublin, where he has spent the past 15 years.

President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, in dismissing Nash's legal challenge, told him nothing had been put before the court that suggested his life and safety was in any imminent danger from other prisoners and that courts should only intervene in the gravest of cases.

Nash sought the transfer on the basis that he was under threat from other prisoners and had become significantly suicidal.

He has already served a 15-year life sentence in Arbour Hill for the murder of two people in Ballintober, Co Roscommon, in 1997.

Last April, Nash (42) was given another life sentence after he was found guilty of the separate murders of Sylvia Sheils (59) and Mary Callanan (61) at their sheltered housing in Grangegorman in Dublin in 1997.

Following sentencing, he had initially been taken to Mountjoy Prison, where he claims he has been under threat from other prisoners and under 23-hour lock up for his own safety.

He sought a return to Arbour Hill, where he claims he had been living a peaceful life, but was later transferred to Midlands Prison, where he remains and where he claims he is also under threat.

As well as being suicidal, the court heard that Nash refused to take food for several weeks, which resulted in him having been taken to hospital.

The court heard that he had started taking food again and was back at Midlands Prison.

‘Not appropriate’

The judge said prisoners could not expect or demand arrangements for where they serve their sentences and it was not appropriate for courts to adopt a role of micro-managing criminal detention arrangements.

He said it should no tbe possible for a prisoner to cite threats of suicide as an appropriate basis for a transfer, unless the suicidal condition had been brought about as a direct result of actual or apprehended violence that placed the prisoner at risk.

The court accepted that prison life would have instances where prisoners might be at loggerheads with each other.

“Unrealistic worries or exaggerated over-reaction to remarks, looks, gestures or minor scuffles can never constitute an adequate reason for treating a threat of suicide as a basis for ordering prison authorities to transfer a prisoner from one prison to another much less to a prison of his choosing,” the judge said.

In relation to specific threats allegedly made against Nash at Midlands Prison, which it was claimed rendered him suicidal, the judge said the evidence of the threats was somewhat vague and non-specific.

The judge said it had come across strongly that Nash’s apprehensions were based more on subjective rather than objective considerations.

He said that not one of the prisoners named by Nash was in a position to harm him in the Midlands Prison as they were kept separate from him.

The judge said Nash’s mental state seemed more attributable to an adjustment disorder following his convictions for the Grangegorman murders rather than any perceived threats.

He said there was no evidence that any risk of suicide would abate if Nash was sent to Arbour Hill.

The judge added that the court’s decision did not preclude him from seeking a transfer to Arbour Hill in the future, if Nash’s level of cooperation with the prison authorities improved over time.

Adjourning the proceedings until October, the judge said that cooperation, rather than threats of suicide, were likely to be of greater assistance to Nash in this regard.