Psychotic killer ‘did not receive proper care’
The damning Commission of Investigation report detailed a litany of psychiatric and management failures involving Egan leading up to the fatal assault of Mr Douch in Mountjoy Prison.
But the report also said that, following the attack and after he was transferred back to prison from the Central Mental Hospital, Egan did not get appropriate psychiatric care in prison.
Gráinne McMorrow, SC, also said proper drug administration records were not kept in the prison.
Her report said Egan was transferred on August 3 (two days after Douch’s death) to the CMH, where he was given two anti-psychotic medications. He was assessed as presenting “an extreme risk of violence towards staff and patients” and kept in seclusion.
His condition improved and on October 5 a decision was made to discharge him.
On October 6 he was transferred to Midlands Prison, with documentation confirming he remained “a high risk in terms of possible violent behaviour”.
Egan was put into a single cell in a special protection area. The report said he has remained there since.
Prison files showed Egan was reviewed by the in-reach psychiatric service on October 10. Ms McMorrow said there was no follow-up for 11 weeks: “The Commission has seen no record of any further follow-up by the Psychiatric In reach Service between 25 October and 9 January 2007, when concerns expressed by prison officers about Mr Egan’s behaviour prompted another review by a psychiatrist.”
That was not the only problem: “Drug administration records at the prison are incomplete, but it would appear that Mr Egan had ceased taking his anti-psychotic medication in or around the middle of October.” Efforts were made to get him to do so, his medication was increased and he was placed on a waiting list to return to CMH in January 2007.
A month later the governor of Midlands and the resident GP expressed concern regarding an “apparent deterioration” of Egan’s mental health. They spoke to the IPS about securing a place at the CMH.
The files show that from February 22 Egan was taking his medication and his demeanour improved. He was not transferred to the CMH, but the report does not explain why.
Egan improved during 2007 and stayed on his medication. The report noted this was still the case at the time of writing the report.
Concluding, Ms McMorrow said Egan’s psychiatric aftercare at Midlands “was not of the intensity that might have been expected given his history and the course of his illness while an in-patient.”
She said Egan’s drug administration was “not properly maintained.”
The Prison Service had no comment on Egan’s treatment after Douch’s death, apart from repeating that they accepted the report’s findings.
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