A prisoner was kept in handcuffs through his dying days in hospital, an inquest has heard.
John O’Neill (38), who was an inmate at Cloverhill Prison, spent the last six weeks of his life in hospital after an application for temporary release was turned down.
He remained handcuffed and accompanied by Irish Prison Service (IPS) staff until he died.
O’Neill was in and out of hospital throughout the final year of his life with decompensated liver disease due to hepatitis C.
He was transferred from St James’s Hospital to St Vincent’s hospital in mid-October 2015. He had been assessed for suitability for a liver transplant and a decision was imminent.
Cloverhill’s assistant governor Joe Hernan said it was an unusual case but that the prison escort had to continue in hospital despite the circumstances.
‘Discreet’
“They started exploring tagging options for Mr O’Neill as that would be more discreet. It’s very rare,” he said, adding that there was a delay because the contractor was not based in the State.
O’Neill was tagged and Dublin Coroner’s Court heard discussions about his prison escort were continuing when he died on October 31st, 2015.
“There was ongoing discussion about the escort. The man died in the meantime. I don’t believe Mr O’Neill was in a position to meet the normal criteria [for temporary release],” Mr Hernan said. “The staff were still there with a duty to carry out until such time as they got paperwork – they waited until they were satisfied that it was handed over to the Garda.”
Mr Hernan said there was a genuine concern among the prison’s staff for the man and his situation.
A postmortem gave the cause of O’Neill’s death as upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to ruptured oesophageal veins due to cirrhosis of the liver.
The jury returned a narrative verdict and coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said she endorsed Mr Hernan’s comments on reviewing procedures “around those very sensitive times” when somebody is dying.