The Grangegorman Murders: Dean Lyons, Mark Nash and the Story behind the Grangegorman Murders

On the morning of 7 March 1997 the bodies of two elderly female psychiatric patients were discovered in their sheltered accommodation at Grangegorman in Dublin. Both had suffered horrific injuries. Pressure on the Gardai to solve the crime grew, fuelled by a report from behavioral analysts who suggested that the perpetrator would re-offend. On 26 July, one of the suspects, Dean Lyons, a heroin addict, had, during the course of routine interview, made a number of admissions to the murders. The charges were laid despite the voiced opposition of three experienced investigators involved in the investigation because of Dean's mental instability, one of them the author of this book. Following two further similarly brutal murders in Roscommon a few months later, Mark Nash was arrested. He admitted to the Roscommon killings and also admitted to the Grangegorman murders. Certain senior Gardai, however, continued to insist that Dean was the real perpetrator. He remained in custody until finally the charges against him were withdrawn. He spent months in jail for a crime he did not commit. A Garda Commissioner eventually issued a public apology to the Lyons family. Unfortunately, Dean Lyons did not live to receive the apology himself as he died from a heroin overdose in 2000. Over fifteen years later Nash will finally stand trial for the Grangegorman murders. This is a fascinating and tragic story behind ""the most brutal murders in Irish criminal history"".