Jury read letter of retraction by man who previously gave gardai statement admitting to Grangegorman double murder

A jury at the Central Criminal Court has been presented with a letter of retraction written by Mark Nash, a 42-year-old man from Dublin, who previously gave gardaí a statement admitting responsibility for the 1997 murders of two women in Grangegorman. Nash has pleaded not guilty to the charges concerning the deaths of Sylvia Shields and Mary Callanan between 6 and 7 March 1997. In the retraction, read to the court by former Assistant Commissioner James McHugh, Nash attributed his knowledge of the crimes to media coverage, teletext reports, and radio accounts. He claimed he had been in mental distress when making his initial August 1997 statement at Mill Street Garda Station in Galway and asserted he had requested legal representation on three occasions during questioning. The trial, with Roscommon connections relating to an earlier assault allegation against Nash, continues.