CONVICTED MURDERER Mark Nash has claimed he cannot expect a fair trial for the murders of two women in Grangegorman, Dublin, in 1997.
Nash is currently serving life sentences for the murder of Carl Doyle (29) and his wife Catherine (26) near Carran, Ballintubber, Co Roscommon, in August that year.
The High Court was told yesterday that Nash believed he could not now get a fair trial for the killing of Grangegorman residents Sylvia Shiels (59) and Mary Callinan (61). The court heard this was because of “delay and prejudice and pre-trial publicity”.
The women, who lived in sheltered accommodation at Grangegorman, were found stabbed to death in their beds at their home at Orchard View on March 7th, 1997.
Lawyers for Nash, who was charged last year with the murders of the two women, said he was now seeking leave for a judicial review of the decision to prosecute him for the killings.
Mr Justice Michael Peart heard that January 11th, 2011, had been set for the case.
The court also heard Nash (36) had previously applied to serve the remainder of his life sentences in relation to the Doyle killings in his native Britain. His counsel told the court that Nash had a number of grounds for his concern and one of these was the delay in bringing the prosecution.
A second concern related to “prejudice” because of that delay, while another was “pre-trial publicity”.
Mr Justice Peart recalled that he had previously lived beside a sister of one of the deceased, Grangegorman women, and while this was “a long time ago” he told Nash’s legal team that it could be better to seek another judge to hear the application for judicial review.
Accordingly Mr Justice Peart put the application back for consideration by another judge and said he would note the application in case any issue arose in relation to the timing of the request for leave to seek a judicial review.
Nash, who was not in court for the short hearing, was convicted of the murder of Carl and Catherine Doyle, having spent the night with them in their Co Roscommon home in August 1997. The couple had gone to live in the area under the rural resettlement scheme.
Nash was the then boyfriend of Catherine Doyle’s sister, Sarah Jane Doyle.
At the time Nash, then aged 25, had an address at Clonliffe Road in north Dublin.