A MAN jailed for the murder of a couple in Co Roscommon 12 years ago has brought a fresh challenge to the continuing refusal to transfer him to a prison in England on grounds that he is a suspect in the investigation into the murders of two women in Grangergorman.
During the hearing yesterday of Mark Nash’s application for leave to bring his proceedings, the court was told gardaí are pursuing DNA evidence as part of their investigation into the Grangegorman murders some 12 years ago.
Nash’s solicitor James Mcguill said no progress appeared to have been made in the Garda investigation but it continued to be put forward as a reason to refuse his client’s transfer.
Nash was born in Ballina, Co Mayo but grew up in England and wants to return there to serve the remainder of two life sentences imposed for murdering a couple in Roscommon in 1997.
He was granted permission yesterday by Mr Justice Michael Peart to bring a judicial review challenge to the refusal of transfer by the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform. It is his third such challenge in eight years.
Nash (36) was convicted in October 1998 of the murders of Carl Doyle (29) and his wife, Catherine Doyle (28) at their home in Caran, Ballintober, Castlerea, on August 16th, 1997. Catherine Doyle was the sister of Nash’s then girlfriend.
In January 1999, Nash applied for transfer but was refused. He subsequently brought two separate High Court cases challenging that refusal but failed.
Nash was told the reason for the refusal was because he was a suspect in the murders of Mary Callanan and Sylvia Shields, who were stabbed to death in their sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman in 1997.
A drug addict, Dean Lyons (who has since died) confessed to those murders but it was later accepted by the Garda and found by an independent inquiry that Mr Lyons could not have committed the murders.
Nash was told, because gardaí believed new evidence might come to light in the Grangegorman investigation which could lead to him being charged with these murders, the Minister for Justice was not prepared to transfer him because of the practical difficulties which would be created by him being outside the jurisdiction.