Gardaí hope that a postmortem examination due to be carried out today by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster will reveal how a 51-year-old Russian asylum seeker ended up unconscious in a Garda cell with a head injury just hours after he was arrested for criminal damage.
The man, whose name has not been released but who is from St Petersburg in Russia, had been in a critical condition at Cork University Hospital since last Friday after being found with a head injury in a cell at Togher Garda station in Cork city.
The man was arrested on the Carrigrohane Road in Cork by gardaí from Togher after officers received a report at about 6.40am on Friday that damage had been caused to a block of apartments at Victoria Cross, where some windows had been smashed.
The man arrived at Togher Garda station at 7.05am, where he was processed and put into a cell alone. At 8.20am gardaí found him lying on the floor in an unconscious state after it appeared he had suffered a head injury.
An ambulance was called and the man was rushed to Cork University Hospital, where he received treatment for his injuries, but he died yesterday afternoon.
Last Friday, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy appointed Supt Pat McCarthy from Mallow in Cork North Division to carry out an investigation into the circumstances of the man's arrest and detention and to try to establish how he suffered the injury.
A spokesman for Togher Garda station confirmed that Interpol had informed the man's family in St Petersburg. It is understood that the man, who had no fixed address, had been living in Ireland for a number of years.
