CEO OF the Courts Service Brendan Ryan met the Keegan family yesterday to express his sympathy at the loss of Noel Keegan after the sentencing of Martin McDonagh for assault causing harm to Mr Keegan.
Mr Ryan apologised for the failures in the Courts Service procedures, identified in the report of the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, which meant McDonagh was at liberty when he should have been in prison.
The Reilly report found a litany of “flawed systems, outmoded work practices and the failure of organs of the ‘justice family’ to communicate with each other”, combined with lapses of judgment, ended in the death of Mr Keegan.
Last January, when it emerged McDonagh should not have been at large, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern asked Judge Reilly to investigate how the criminal justice agencies involved had allowed McDonagh to be at liberty in December 2009 when he had been sentenced to a four-year term in April that year. He also asked him to make any necessary recommendations.
Judge Reilly reported in May, but the report could not be published until the conclusion of the criminal trial. He found serious issues relating to two separate sentences imposed on Martin McDonagh, who had a number of previous convictions.
On April 24th, 2009, a four-year sentence was imposed on him while he was already serving a two-year sentence. He was not in court for the sentencing and the warrant was not issued by the Circuit Court office in Longford between May 1st, 2009 and January 5th, 2010, so he did not commence the four-year sentence until January 5th, seven months after it was imposed. In the meantime, on December 31st, he had assaulted Mr Keegan, leading to his death.
Two days before the four-year sentence, on April 22nd, 2009, McDonagh was sentenced to the two years. His release date with remission was December 14th, with post-release supervision.
He received temporary release on November 27th, subject to a number of conditions, including supervision, to which he did not adhere. Following his breach of his release conditions, he was unlawfully at large. However, Castlerea Prison did not inquire as to whether he was signing on, and was not in touch with the Garda station until December 14th.
Judge Reilly’s recommendations came under two headings: those that required immediate implementation, and those that should be worked on in the longer term. The immediate recommendations concern tighter control on how warrants are executed, on temporary release conditions and on maintaining a register of released prisoners. Longer-term recommendations include measures to enhance communication between agencies.
Mr Ahern said yesterday those identified for immediate action had been implemented, and the medium-term recommendations would be within a three-year timeframe. The reports are published on the department’s website.