Grangegorman killings

Grangegorman killings

The house at No.1 Orchard View, Grangegorman
Date	6 March 1997
Location	No.1 Orchard View, Grangegorman, Dublin 7, Ireland
Also known as	Grangegorman murders
Deaths	Sylvia Shields and Mary Callinan
Suspect(s)	Dean Lyons, Mark Nash
Charges	Mark Nash
Convictions	Mark Nash

The Grangegorman killings were the homicide on 6 March 1997 of Sylvia Shields and Mary Callinan, patients at St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital in Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland. After giving a false confession, Dean Lyons was charged with the murders and placed on remand. In his statement to the Garda Síochána (police), Lyons gave details that would only be known to the murderer or to the investigators. After Lyons was charged, Mark Nash confessed to the killings, but later retracted his confession. In April 2015, Nash's trial for the murder of Shields and Callinan began after an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the trial from going forward.

Lyons was described by one of the gardaí (policemen) involved in the case as a "Walter Mitty" character, and Charles Smith, psychiatrist and director of the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, felt that he might be prone to exaggeration and attention seeking. A commission of investigation was set up to investigate the conduct of the Garda in the case. Dean Lyons died from a heroin overdose in 2000. He spent nine months in jail for a crime that he did not commit.

On the morning of 7 March 1997, Sylvia Shields and Mary Callinan were found dead in No.1 Orchard View, Grangegorman, Dublin 7. They were found by Ann Mernagh, another resident of the house, who raised the alarm at No.5 Orchard View. The house was a two story end of terrace house owned by the Eastern Health Board, and was used to provide sheltered accommodation for outpatients of St Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital. The entire Orchard View area was completely demolished 15 years after the murders and is now an empty plot surrounded by a wall.