A Man was found hanging in his cell in Wheatfield Prison in Dublin early yesterday morning. Thomas Coleman (25) hanged himself using shoelaces tied to the top bunk of the double-cell, in which he was alone. He was discovered by prison staff at 7 a.m. and taken to St James's Hospital, where attempts to revive him failed. Coleman, from Ballybough, received a 10-year sentence in April for a series of robberies. In the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Cyril Kelly described him and an accomplice as "modern highway bandits" after an attack on a taxi-driver who was stabbed with a syringe.
The court heard how Coleman and his accomplice, who was carrying the syringe, hailed a taxi in O'Connell Street last July. The driver became suspicious of them and gave a signal to other taxi drivers that he was in trouble, but Coleman's accomplice held the syringe to his neck and ordered him to keep driving.
The driver braked and the syringe jabbed into his face and hand, although he managed to spray a substance from an aerosol can at the two attackers, the court heard.
The driver attended hospital for seven months and was given the "all clear" from infection. Judge Kelly said Coleman was as guilty as his accomplice.
Coleman admitted a total of five offences, all of which were carried out while he was on temporary release from prison, and three of them when he was on bail. He admitted two handbag snatches from cars, an attempted robbery, and robbing a woman at syringe point. It is understood that Coleman had given no indications of distress and had not been on any special suicide watch - which involves more frequent checks on cells.