THE KILLING by one prisoner of another inmate at Mountjoy Prison is the subject of a murder trial which has opened at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Declan O’Reilly (29), Parnell Road, Crumlin, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Derek Glennon (24) on June 25th, 2007.
The jury yesterday was shown CCTV footage of the fight that led to the death and heard from the Irish Prison Service’s assistant governor, John Farrell, who was chief officer for Mountjoy Prison’s C and D wings at the time.
He said he noticed what he thought was horseplay in D1 at about 5.40pm as the prisoners were being unlocked from their cells for evening recreation.
He said that the footage showed O’Reilly striking Glennon in the chest and Glennon responding with a kick.
The fight moved away from the camera and a number of prison officers and inmates were seen running towards the commotion outside Glennon’s cell, cell 9.
The jury was also given a number of stills from the footage.
Mr Farrell said that when he arrived, both men were slumped in a corner outside the cell. He said Glennon appeared to be the aggressor and seemed to have subdued O’Reilly, who was hunkered. Mr Farrell said Glennon became violent when he and his colleagues began restraining him.
“I heard a shout from behind that he had a knife,” he said.
Mr Farrell said that in line with procedure, he then struck Glennon once in the face to subdue him for the safety of staff and inmates, and they put him on his back on the floor. “He simply said to me: ‘I’m stabbed’. He lifted his sweatshirt and I saw a wound,” recalled Mr Farrell.
Glennon was rushed to the nearby Mater hospital but died at 6.29pm. The trial continues before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.
