The Government is providing more than £7 million for video-recording suspects' statements in Garda stations in the case of serious crimes. This follows the findings of an internal Garda inquiry into the wrongful charging of a Dublin heroin addict with a double murder two years ago. The provision for £7.2 million to "refurbish and equip interview rooms" was one of the items in the £1 billion Budget estimate of the Minister for Justice published last month.
It is anticipated that specially equipped interview rooms with video-recording facilities will be installed in divisional headquarter stations by the middle of next year. There are now recording facilities in a few stations and these have been used on an irregular basis. The intention now is that all statements taken from suspects in serious cases will be done in front of video cameras.
The impetus for the introduction of the video equipment, it has emerged, has come from the findings of an inquiry, led by the Dublin Metropolitan Commissioner Mr Jim McHugh into the wrongful charging of Mr Dean Lyons.
Mr Lyons was arrested by gardai from the Bridewell Station in Dublin and the Garda National Bureau of Crime Investigation in relation to the murder of Ms Sylvia Shields and Ms Mary Callinan at Grangegorman Hospital in March 1997.
He was charged with the double murder although there were discrepancies in his statement. Friends and associates of Mr Lyons, who was a heroin addict, maintained he had never shown any serious signs of violent behaviour.
Two months after Mr Lyons was arrested and charged with the murders, another man, Mark Nash, killed a husband and wife in Co Roscommon. After he was arrested while fleeing the scene, he made a full confession to the two Grangegorman murders. Nash is now serving life imprisonment for the murders of the couple, Carl and Catherine Doyle.
Despite Nash's detailed admission to the Grangegorman murders, Mr Lyons was held in prison for a further six months before he was released.
On Mr Lyon's release, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, directed Commissioner McHugh to investigate the case. His report, which has remained secret, was completed at the beginning of this year. One of its main findings was that statements in criminal cases should be taken in front of video cameras.
Mr Lyons was subsequently convicted of a robbery charge, not connected in any way to the murders and is currently on temporary release. He has made a statement formally withdrawing the alleged confession he made while under interrogation in the Bridewell Station.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is still considering whether to bring charges in relation to the Grangegorman murders against Nash.