Vol. 558 No. 2
47 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the call made by the relatives of persons (details supplied) for a further inquiry into all the circumstances surrounding the brutal and as yet unsolved murders. [23992/02]
On a number of occasions my predecessor outlined to the House in some detail the background to this case. I refer the Deputy to his response to Question No. 11 of 21 February 2002.
The Deputy will recall that two persons initially confessed to the crimes in question, one of whom subsequently withdrew his confession. Following consultation between the Garda Síochána and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the first person to confess was charged with one of the murders and was remanded in custody at a special sitting of the Dublin District Court. Subsequently, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that criminal proceedings against this person be discontinued.
A file concerning the second person was subsequently submitted to the director who decided no prosecution should take place. I have no function in relation to the prosecution of offences. That is the responsibility of the Director of Public Prosecutions who is independent in the exercise of his functions.
I discussed this case at some length today with the Garda Commissioner who has advised me that he proposes very soon to communicate with the families involved and to bring certain matters in relation to this into the public domain as soon as he can. I ask Deputies to bear in mind that the Garda Commissioner, Mr. Byrne, stressed that in that case he is to some extent constrained by the fact that there are still some outstanding prosecution issues involved and he does not want to do anything that would prejudge those matters. In fairness to the families involved and pending further discussions with the commissioner, I should defer final decisions on the question of further inquiries.
I welcome the fact that the Minister took the trouble, which I do not think his predecessor did, to discuss this case at length with the Garda Commissioner. The Minister will accept this case is almost universally regarded as involving a very serious miscarriage of justice in regard to Dean Lyons, the first person to be charged with what were probably the most horrific murders in the history of the State. There has been considerable media comment on this case, none of which has been refuted. For example, it has been stated that the statement of Dean Lyons contained information that was only available to the murderer and to the investigating gardaí. If it was subsequently found he was not involved in the murder, one of the few logical conclusions one can reach is that the gardaí helped shape his statement in a manner in which they were then able to prosecute him.
It has also been suggested in the media that the statement of Dean Lyons was a precise chronological, accurate, coherent account in a manner that was way beyond the ability of a confused heroin addict who was only semi-articulate to deliver and that that account was delivered when he was not being recorded. Does the Minister accept there are very serious issues involved in this case which point to a major miscarriage of justice involving Dean Lyons and that that has to be cleared up once and for all, particularly in the context of other cases in recent years where statements of persons charged were found by the courts to have been interfered with by gardaí?
I understand the situation is that the former Assistant Commissioner James McHugh carried out an inquiry into the matters raised by the Deputy. In the course of that inquiry he came to certain conclusions which are now being studied by the commissioner. The commissioner has spent some time personally addressing these issues because of their importance. It would appear the Deputy is correct in one respect, that some of the confessional material was not video recorded whereas other portions of it were. An explanation has been tendered for that. As I understand it, as part of the investigation, there will be some expert psychological evidence.
This is not the first time this has happened. It always raises questions. I share the Deputy's view that having two inconsistent confessions from two different sources to the same offence raises very substantial questions in everybody's mind. However, it is not necessarily the case, and I would only put it this far and no further because I personally have not seen any of the documentation, that such events are always explained by one phenomenon only, the fabrication of evidence. Confessions are sometimes tendered by psychologically vulnerable people which later turn out not to be correct.
I accept what the Minister says. That is why an inquiry is required. If Dean Lyons had been a person of influence or affluence, this inquiry would have been held a long time ago. Because he was a homeless heroin addict in Dublin, nobody seemed to care or want to know about what even a casual glance at the very fine investigative work demonstrated by Jim Cusack, the then security correspondent of The Irish Times would show was needed, namely, an inquiry. While I welcome the Minister speaking to the Garda Commissioner and the Garda Commissioner's response, surely the Minister accepts it is a belated response, years after the event. The charges against Dean Lyons were finally dropped in 1998 and the Garda Commissioner has seen fit to respond to the Minister only now.
I accept the Deputy's point about the vulnerability of marginalised people. Obviously people in such circumstances do not have as many champions in civic society or in the media, in the first instance at any rate, as ought to be the case. I would, however, ask the Deputy to bear in mind that in relation to his point about the belatedness of the response to the matter, I am dealing with it as expeditiously as I can, but from a distance. The delay was partly occasioned by the fact that prosecutorial decisions over which I have no control had to be made in relation to all these matters. There is a great illusion that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform directs Garda operations and makes day-to-day decisions about prosecutions and the like, but that is not the case.
