Mark Nash loses High Court prison transfer bid

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Mark Nash lost his High Court bid to move from Midlands Prison to Arbour Hill prison in Dublin. The proceedings were reported on 4 August 2015. President of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns dismissed the legal challenge.

Nash had served 15 years of a life sentence for murdering two people in Ballintober, Co Roscommon, in 1997. In April 2015, he received another life sentence after being found guilty of the separate murders of Sylvia Sheils, 59, and Mary Callanan, 61, at their sheltered housing in Grangegorman, Dublin, in 1997.

Following sentencing, Nash was initially sent to Mountjoy Prison, where he claimed he faced threats and was under 23-hour lock-up for his safety. He sought a return to Arbour Hill, where he claimed he had lived peacefully, but was transferred to Midlands Prison. He claimed he was also under threat there and had become suicidal.

The court heard he had refused food for several weeks and been taken to hospital, but had resumed eating and returned to Midlands Prison.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns found no evidence of imminent danger to Nash’s life or safety. He described the alleged threats as vague and non-specific and Nash’s apprehensions as more subjective than objective. The prisoners Nash named were kept separate from him and could not harm him, the judge said. He considered Nash’s mental state more attributable to an adjustment disorder following the Grangegorman convictions and found no evidence that transfer would reduce the suicide risk.

The judge said suicide threats could justify a transfer only where the suicidal condition resulted directly from actual or apprehended violence placing the prisoner at risk. He said a future transfer application remained possible if Nash’s cooperation with prison authorities improved. He adjourned the proceedings until October.