Prosecutors in the trial of a Huddersfield man accused of murdering two women 18 years ago have concluded their evidence to a murder trial jury.
And one told the jurors that if Mark Nash was not the person who carried out two killings in March 1997 he was a “most unfortunate person.”
Nash, 42, grew up in Bradley and is a former student at All Saints High School.
He had been living in Prussia Street and Clonliffe Road in Dublin, and has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Sylvia Shields, 60, and Mary Callanan, 61,between March 6 and March 7, 1997.
The trial has heard the two women were living in sheltered accommodation in a house attached to St Brendan’s Psychiatric Hospital in Grangegorman at the time.
Counsel for the State, Mr Brendan Grehan SC concluded his closing speech where he told the jury of six men and five women that if the prosecution team were wrong and the accused Mark Nash was not the person who “carried out two murders on the night in question” then Mark Nash was a “most unfortunate person.”
“Unfortunate in that he happened to live around the corner on Prussia Street, he happened to have no one with him when he got home as his girlfriend was at work, that he was just unlucky that he happened to make unsolicited admissions to Gardai saying he carried out the murders and compounded this by maps he drew.”
Mr Grehan continued: “Unlucky in the extreme that in his letter of retraction all he did was introduce new material that was not contained in his statement at all and which could only have been known to someone involved in this crime that mutilation had taken place and five knives had been used.
“Unlucky that he just happens to own a pair of Caterpillar boots, which match the prints found at the scene and unlucky that he was wearing a black velvet jacket on the night and extremely unlucky that the DNA of both victims were found on the jacket” added the prosecuting counsel.
“Unlucky in the extreme that this was found on the right hand sleeve as Mark Nash is a right handed person. All of these factors are one that suggests that Mark Nash is the unluckiest and most unfortunate and all these factors come together in the case again him.”
Mr Grehan then concluded to the jury they have to be satisfied that the combination of these matters are not a “series of inconceivable coincidences” and in the prosecutions case there is a “compelling, coercive and conclusive case that he did murder the two women.”
Mr Hugh Hartnett SC for the accused began his closing speech to the juryand told the court he intended to deal with the facts in this case.
“I don’t intend to talk about good luck or bad luck but the scientific facts in this case” he said.
