The Department of Justice said today it was investigating how elements of a preliminary report into a double murder in Grangegorman, Dublin, in 1997 were leaked to the media.
A spokesman told ireland.comthat the department had contacted the Birmingham Commission of Inquiry to check "the routing of the report" and that further action could not be ruled out, including prosecution, if someone is found to have leaked the report prior to formal publication.
The commission investigated the charging of Dean Lyons in relation to the double murder of Sylvia Shields (59) and Mary Callinan (61), who were stabbed to death in their beds in March 1997 in sheltered accommodation run by St Brendan's psychiatric hospital in Grangegorman.
Lyons, described as a homeless drug addict, was arrested and apparently confessed to the killings while in Garda custody in 1997. He was later charged with the murders.
But another man, Mark Nash, confessed to the murders, outlining details that could only have been known to someone at the scene. He was being questioned at the time about the killing of a Roscommon couple in August 1997.
Nash is serving life imprisonment for those murders. He later withdrew his confession to the Grangegorman murders and has never been charged.
Seven months later, the charges against Mr Lyons were dropped. He died afterwards in England.
Jackie Lyons, father of Dean Lyons, told RTE Newstoday that the family were unhappy with the media reports but wanted to see a copy of the report themselves before commenting further.
Several media reports in recent days have claimed that some senior gardaí decided to pursue a prosecution against Mr Lyons despite reservations from their more junior colleagues, and that the DPP was never made aware of concerns about the reliability of Mr Lyons's statement.
Last night the Department issued a warning that those who had the report could face heavy fines and a term of imprisonment if they disclose its contents. The Department said it would publish the report in early September.
But Labour's justice spokesman, Brendan Howlin, today called for the early publication of the report.
Mr Howlin said: "If, as has been suggested, the report from Mr Birmingham has been with the Minister for some weeks, and if those affected by its findings have been given a copy, there is no reason why is should be withheld any further by Minister McDowell."
"Certainly it is totally unacceptable that the family of Dean Lyons and the relatives of Sylvia Shields and Mary Callinan should now be reading versions of its reported conclusions in the media," he said.
