The manner in which Sylvia Sheils and Mary Callinan met their deaths in Dublin in 1997 could hardly be more heinous. Vulnerable and defenceless, the women were mutilated in an attack characterised by barbarity and depravity. But eight years later, no one has been brought to justice and the State stands indicted for its role in a bizarre series of events which have compounded the distress of families involved in this complex saga.
Ms Sheils (58) and Ms Callinan (61) were murdered in sheltered accommodation linked to St Brendan's psychiatric hospital in Grangegorman. Four months later, gardaí arrested a 24-year-old homeless man, Dean Lyons, who had been seen in the area around the time of the murders. During garda questioning, he made a confession and was charged on the instructions of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Within a fortnight, however, a young Dublin couple - Carl and Catherine Doyle - were found dead in their Co Roscommon home, the victims of a frenzied knife attack in which Mrs Doyle's sister, Sarah, was seriously injured. Her boyfriend, Mark Nash, was identified as the prime suspect and was soon arrested. He confessed to the Grangegorman murders and included a crucial detail, which had not been made public, relating to headphones worn by a third woman in the Grangegorman house. Senior officers in Dublin were informed of his confession but Mr Lyons remained in custody for another seven months before the DPP dropped the charges against him. He died in September 2000 as a result of a drug overdose.
Nash, who was born in Mayo in 1973 and spent many years in England, was subsequently jailed for life for murdering the Doyles. He had been living in north Dublin at the time of the Grangegorman murders and was publicly identified as a suspect during the inquest into the deaths of Ms Sheils and Ms Callinan in 2002. But he has never been charged with the crimes. For those connected to the Grangegorman victims, the case remains unresolved.
It has emerged now that the Garda is preparing to apologise to the Lyons family but for Ms Stella Nolan - sister of Ms Sheils - the wait for an official explanation of these tragic events goes on. The findings of an internal Garda inquiry remain secret and, notwithstanding the questions that abound in relation to the circumstances of Mr Lyons's false confession, the nature of the Garda response to Nash's admissions and the approach of the DPP to the case, the Minister for Justice has repeatedly rejected calls for a public inquiry. Justice requires, however, that these questions must be answered. What do any of the parties involved have to lose by doing so?