The prison officers who were charged with the supervision of a young man who died in a Dublin prison of drug-related pneumonia were unaware that he was under special observation due to risk of drug overdose, an inquest heard yesterday.
Paul Kelly (22), Greenfort Gardens, Clondalkin, was pronounced dead at the Mater Hospital at 10.25am on February 9th, having being discovered unconscious in his cell in Mountjoy prison earlier that morning, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
Prison officer Darren O'Donoghue, the night guard responsible for checking Mr Kelly's cell, said while he was aware that Mr Kelly was under special observation, he had no idea why.
Special observation entails checks every 15 minutes, rather than the usual supervision which involves 30-minute checks.
A postmortem revealed that Mr Kelly died from bronchial pneumonia due to drug intoxication. Toxicology reports revealed a cocktail of drugs in his system including heroin, cannabis and a sedative drug. The inquest also heard that none of the prison officers who attended to Mr Kelly received any training in recognising when a prisoner had taken an overdose.
City coroner Dr Brian Farrell said he believed Mr Kelly was dead at the time he was discovered, fully clothed, in his cell on the morning of February 9th.
"The evidence indicated that he may have died in the early hours of the morning. Nobody who saw Paul on that evening thought there was anything unusual about Paul's behaviour or that he had taken any drugs," he said.
"There was no question that he intended to harm himself. There is no evidence of suicidal behaviour and no question of unlawful killing or third-party involvement."
A jury recorded a verdict of death by misadventure under the direction of the coroner.
Assistant chief officer at Mountjoy Prison Marian Kennedy told the inquest that the procedure for carrying special observation at the prison was reviewed 12-14 months ago and the list was now routinely updated every Saturday.
While she admitted it would be helpful to have the reason why the prisoner was under special observation included as part of the list, she told the court it was not standard procedure.
"Sometimes it's written down, sometimes it's not," she said.
Outside the court, Mr Kelly's mother Jackie Kelly said prison officers needed to be trained properly to recognise if someone was sick in their cells, whether it was a drug overdose or not.
"Paul was my only son . . . It's very hard. I sleep with his T-shirt under my pillow and the girls wear his jerseys. It's still very difficult to believe he's gone," she told the court.
Counsel for the Irish Prison Service Stephen Byrne said he would be drawing up and "full and detailed report" in relation to the inquest into Mr Kelly's death, which he would be bringing to the attention of the Irish Prison Service.