Murder investigation after death of Cloverhill prison inmate

A second man from Co Laois is being treated in hospital for non-life threatening injuries. A third man who was in the cell is believed to not have been injured.

While it is understood that a sharp implement was used in the altercation which led to the death of the inmate, sources have also said that a kettle which was in the cell was also used as a weapon during the incident.

The dead man was arrested on August 15 following the seizure of a handgun and 1kg of suspected cannabis herb in Ballyfermot during a planned search operation carried out by the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT) with the assistance of the Garda Armed Support Unit.

The two men who were in the cell with the man are being interviewed separately this afternoon.

Latest figures published by the Irish Prison Service for Thursday show that Cloverhill was one of the most overcrowded in the prison system, operating at 21% over capacity. The prison has a bed capacity for 433 prisoners but there were 522 inmates there. 408 of those were on remand, awaiting trial.

Deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Gabriel Keaveny, said: “We have told Justice Minister Helen McEntee that the prisons are on the verge of collapse.” 

He said there is an overcrowded system and that the POA has “pleaded” with the Department of Justice to open the Curragh Prison and areas of the old Cork Prison, which he said would “give a small bit of a reprieve”.

A report published by the Department of Justice last month from the Cloverhill Prison Visiting Committee from 2022 highlighted concerns about overcrowding there and warned that the committee saw it as “a potentially serious threat to the order and stability of the prison”.

The report also said: “Cloverhill contains a large proportion of triple occupancy cells. The high rate of committals to Cloverhill, 2704 in 2022 compared with 2300 in 2021, created serious issues of overcrowding that has, over time, resulted in four man cell occupancy, which effectively mean an increasing number of men sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Issues of privacy, toileting, anxiety and stress relating to overcrowded conditions are frequently raised by prisoners during meeting with members of the Visiting Committee.” 

Mr Keaveny pointed out that the report was two years old by the time it was published by the Department of Justice.

He said: “It is gotten a way worse since then. Every place is chronically overcrowded.”

It is understood the body of the dead man remains at the scene this afternoon but will be removed for a post mortem later today.

He was in the prison since August 17 on firearms and drugs charges. His most recent address was in Meath but he was a native of Ballyfermot.

It is understood the landing where the incident occurred is a segregation area of the prison.