Serial killer Mark Nash has lost his appeal for damages at the Supreme Court.

His legal team claimed he should be entitled to damages for a 12-year delay in charging him for the murders of two elderly women in Dublin.

In April of last year, Mark Nash was found guilty of murdering two women in Grangegorman in Dublin in March 1997.

He admitted the murders while being questioned about an assault on a woman in Roscommon during a garda interview in Galway five months later.

59-year-old Sylvia Shiels and 61-year-old Mary Callinan were stabbed to death while they slept in their beds.

Another man called Dean Lyons, who has since passed away, later admitted to the murders.

But a forensic breakthrough in 2009 led to the discovery of the DNA of the two women being found on Nash's jacket.

He was charged while serving a double life sentence for murdering two people in Roscommon in August 1997.

His legal team claimed he is entitled to damages because of the delay in his prosecution.

But the Supreme Court decided they weren't satisfied that any culpable delay was established in all circumstances of the case.

Mark Nash will still receive partial costs from his trial despite an appeal from the DPP.

Sean Defoe reports: