A MAN charged with murdering a Co Armagh GAA player 10 days ago took his own life in a courthouse holding cell yesterday soon after appearing in the court.
Shane Rogers was placed on suicide watch after Judge Flann Brennan directed last week that he receive medical and psychiatric treatment. The judge had been told he was a suicide risk.
Separate Garda and Irish Prison Service investigations are taking place into the death of Mr Rogers, from Deery Terrace, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, at Cloverhill Courthouse, which is attached to Cloverhill Prison.
Foul play has been ruled out and the investigations will focus on how a prisoner on suicide watch, who was checked by prison staff every 15 minutes, could have had the opportunity to kill himself.
The dead man had been in prison for just a week and his brief appearance before Cloverhill District Court yesterday was the first time he had appeared in court since being charged.
He was taken from his cell at Cloverhill Prison in Clondalkin, west Dublin, yesterday morning and brought to the court holding cells through a tunnel that links the remand prison with the courthouse.
He was placed in a holding cell under the court just before his appearance and was returned there immediately after the hearing. He was to be taken from that courthouse cell and returned to the prison at about lunchtime.
However, at 1.30pm he was found unresponsive in the holding cell and, while efforts were made to revive him at Tallaght hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival there.
Mr Rogers was on remand at the prison after being charged last week with murdering James Hughes at Carrickmacross Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, in the early hours of Sunday, December 11th.
When a taxi carrying Mr Hughes and 21-year-old Trish Byrne pulled into Cluain Ard, Lis na Dara, a housing estate on the outskirts of Dundalk, Mr Rogers approached with a shotgun and opened fire. A number of shots were discharged and witnesses reported hearing Mr Hughes plead for his life just before he was fatally wounded. Ms Byrne was also injured by shotgun pellets.
Mr Hughes, from Crossmaglen in Co Armagh, was a central figure with the successful GAA club Crossmaglen Rangers.
After the murder, Mr Rogers presented himself at Carrickmacross Garda station. He was arrested and admitted his involvement in the killing.
When he appeared before Dundalk District Court last Tuesday morning, Sgt Kieran Moore told the court that after being first charged Mr Rogers said: “I apologise to him and to his family and friends and to Trish Byrne. I can’t live with myself for doing this.”