A PHOTOGRAPH OF convicted murderer Mark Nash taken just hours before he killed two women in Grangegorman has been released tonight.
The photograph, released by RTÉ Prime Time – which revisited Nash’s crimes in tonight’s episode – shows the killer on a night out at a table quiz with workmates nearly 20 years ago.
Just hours later, the now-42-year-old would go on to murder Sylvia Sheils (59) and Mary Callanan (61) at their accommodation in Grangegorman.
He pleaded not guilty in court to the two murders.
RTÉ Prime Time also released a photograph of the late Sylvia Sheils, taken hours before she was murdered by Nash in her sheltered housing.
Cold case breakthrough
A dramatic breakthrough in the case, which led to Nash’s conviction, was made in 2009 using new DNA technology.
It was discovered that Nash’s black velvet jacket – which was kept by gardaí after he was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend’s sister and brother-in-law – had DNA from the Grangegorman scene on the sleeve.
The “spectacular breakthrough” came during a cold case review, and meant that Nash could be definitively linked to the crime.
Nash, who has already been serving a double life sentence in Arbour Hill Prison since 1998, was sentenced to life for the Grangegorman murders on Monday.
The sister of Sylvia Sheils, Stella Nolan, said outside the court:
Death – as hard and all as it is inevitably to deal with – is a natural event’ murder is not. It is the illegal unlawful taking of the life of another. It is the most fundamental crime in my view.
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