Irish suicides spark claims of vendetta in British prison

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday October 31, 2002 14:39

by M60

Police probe seven bizarre deaths in three years at Brixton jail as suspicion falls on ex-Army warders

Irish suicides spark claims of vendetta in British prison

Police probe seven bizarre deaths in three years at Brixton jail as suspicion falls on ex-Army warders

Martin Bright and Paul Donovan
Sunday October 27, 2002
The Observer

The suicides of seven Irish inmates in a British prison have prompted an investigation into claims that the deaths are linked to a revenge campaign by warders who previously worked as soldiers in Northern Ireland.
Just 4 per cent of prisoners in Brixton prison in London are Irish, but since December 1999 all seven suicides in the prison have involved inmates from the Irish community. The deaths have caused deep concern in the Irish Republic and embassy staff are demanding answers.

The Metropolitan Police is also investigating an alleged serious sexual assault of an Irish prisoner by a prison officer and a member of the medical team last Thursday.

In May the Prison Service set up an internal review into abuses at Brixton to be conducted by the governor of neighbouring Wandsworth prison, Jim Heavens. This will examine the background of all prisoners who have died, suffered self harm or complained to the race relations officer at Brixton since 1998, and report on whether any groups were at a higher risk. There have been 10 deaths in that time and the authorities have recognised that six of these were Irish and the seventh a British national with Irish parents.

The Careers Transition Partnership trains around 100 armed service 'leavers' as prison officers each year for the Ministry of Defence. A spokesman said trainees received strict instructions on harassment, bullying and racial awareness. Father Gerry McFlynn of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas said he had already raised the issue of the former Army personnel with the Heavens inquiry. 'Brixton is one prison where this is happening but we also see it in other London prisons and some in the Midlands,' said McFlynn. 'I have been told by prisoners over the past four or five years of this intimidation.'

The Prison Service review was originally due to report in mid-August. It was later postponed to October. The Home Office says it will now not be published until the end of the year. 'Either they have lifted up the stones and there is more crawling out than expected or they have lifted up the stones and they don't know how to handle it in public relations terms,' said John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, who will raise the issue of the deaths in the House of Commons this week.

The wave of suicides began on 12 December 1999 when 28-year-old Fulton O'Shea was found alongside his Turkish cellmate, hanging from bedsheets. A 'chatty' letter from O'Shea to his mother was found next to his body. The inquest returned an open verdict.

Marion Fegan, the widow of the second Irishman to die, Derek Fegan, said prison officers admitted they could not understand his strong Irish accent. The inquest decided there had been serious neglect by the prison. 'My husband was on remand and mentally ill. People go to prison to be punished, not to lose their lives. At the end of the day I have no husband and a baby with no father,' said Fegan.

In February 2001, Kevin Sheridan from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, committed suicide after only a day in Brixton. The inquest was told that a vital piece of resuscitation equipment was missing from the doctor's bag as was essential adrenalin. A month later, 31-year-old Michael Barry from Cork was found dead in his cell despite being on suicide watch. Like Sheridan he had a history of mental illness. A witness at his inquest said prison officers had ignored the alarm light flashing on his cell.

This year two further prisoners committed suicide. In March Patrick Gavin, a member of the Irish traveller community awaiting trial for blackmail and kidnapping, was found hanged.

Two months later, on 9 May, the family of Terry Doyle received a call from the prison saying the 29-year-old remand prisoner had been taken to King's College hospital after a suicide attempt. He had only been in the prison for two days. When his mother, Margaret, arrived at the hospital late that evening Terry Doyle was wired to a life support machine but his brain had already died. The machine was switched off three days later.

Margaret Doyle told The Observer her son was a known drug user, but medicine to control his withdrawal prescribed by prison doctors had never reached him: 'He spoke to the doctor and said he was suicidal. He asked to be moved to a medical ward and was told it was full. He had already tried to commit suicide once before, but they never told us. It was neglect. Something needs to be done at that place. It seems very odd that all these deaths are Irishmen.'

McDonnell has taken up the allegations of ex-Army bullying of Irish prisoners in a number of parliamentary questions to the Home Office but has been told that it would not be possible to examine the large numbers of files involved and interview several hundred staff, many of whom no longer worked for the Prison Service.

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Irish suicides spark claims of vendetta in British prison