The State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, yesterday recommended that prisoners at risk in Irish jails be issued with different type underpants than Y-fronts to avoid them concealing objects in the latter.
The recommendation was made at an inquest in Roscommon yesterday which heard how a prisoner died after inhaling fumes from a fire in his cell.
Mr Anthony Ward (25), of Greenfort Crescent, Clondalkin, Dublin, had been serving a sentence in Castlerea Prison for assault and was being held in a special padded cell for his own safety. He was pronounced dead following a fire in the cell last August 6th.
Dr Harbison told the inquest how a gas lighter had fallen out of Mr Ward's Y-front underpants during a post-mortem he carried out on the body at Roscommon County Hospital. He had also found a plastic tobacco pouch in the back waistband of Mr Ward's underwear. He told the inquest of carrying out an examination on the special cell where Mr Ward had been held for protection against self-injury. The cell had a soft floor and padded walls as well as a padded blanket which was fireproof and couldn't be torn up. The outer plastic covering on the walls had been burnt, but the inner material, which was fire resistant, was only blackened.
Dr Harbison said when he examined Mr Ward's body it was clothed only in a pair of white Yfront underpants. He found almost 200 incisions on the body, mostly on the arms. The body was extensively tattooed and had an illustration of the fictional character, Freddie Cougar, a small devil, and the head of a leopard among others.
He concluded that death was caused as a result of fluid to the lungs following the inhalation of fumes from the fire. Dr Harbison went on to recommend that it might be preferable if people such as Mr Ward were issued with trunks (boxer shorts) rather than Y-fronts so as to avoid the retention of objects.
He told Mr Creighton O'Sullivan, solicitor for Mr James Ward, father of Mr Ward, and Mr Brian Neilan, solicitor for the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, that in his opinion the incisions on the body were self-inflicted.
Only Dr Harbison's medical evidence was taken at yesterday's inquest, which is adjourned to next month.