Closing submissions were heard yesterday in the case of a former inmate at Cork Prison who is suing the State for allegedly having to endure sanitary conditions comparable to those used by "Stone Age cavemen."
Troy Cremin (29) Palmsprings, Ardarrig, Douglas, Cork brought his civil action to Cork District Court claiming he was subjected to passive smoking in a cell shared with five other prisoners - all smokers - and that he had to share a chamber pot with other inmates.
Mr Cremin was an inmate at Cork Prison between October 2004 and February 2005 serving a sentence for the harassment of a neighbour.
Yesterday his solicitor Jerry Cronin said that his client was forced to "slop out" with five other prisoners he shared a cell with during his time in prison.
He claimed this involved taking the cell's communal bucket and emptying the urine and sometimes the faeces into a larger toilet on the landing as prisoners from other cells did the same.
Judge Con O'Leary was told that each individual prisoner was issued with a chamber pot and that they were not required to share a pot as alleged by Cremin.
The court was also told that 75 per cent of prisoners in Ireland now have toilets in their cells. It is planned to close Cork Prison within three years and move to a new prison in Kilworth, Co Cork. The new prison will have flushing toilets in the cells.
Barrister Pearse Sreenan, representing the State, said yesterday that during his incarceration, Mr Cremin had never complained about passive smoking or toilet facilities.
Mr Sreenan said the governor of a prison may owe a duty of care towards a person with emphysema who asked to be moved to a non-smoking cell. But he told the court that Mr Cremin did not have a serious illness and never even brought the passive smoking issue to the attention of prison authorities.
Judge O'Leary said he had never come across a situation quite like this. He continued to hear closing submissions yesterday, before reserving judgment until a later date.