Officer taken to hospital after prison disturbance

FOUR prison officers were injured, and one had to be taken to hospital, following a disturbance at a prison yesterday.

One of the officers was struck in the head with the shaft of a sweeping brush when he attempted to reason with five inmates in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison.

While the Irish Prison Service played down the incident, claiming it was minor and over in a few minutes, staff representatives claimed it revealed the dangers faced by officers.

John Clinton, of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “We are calling for a security review and will be contacting the director of human resources in the prison service for a full report.”

A prison service spokesman said Wheatfield’s Governor Ned Whelan will investigate the incident. He added that the injured officer was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The disturbance began shortly after midday after the inmates returned to their cells in Unit 6 after collecting their dinners.

A prison insider said: “There was some trouble with one of the prisoners earlier and that’s how it kicked off. One of them had to be taken off the unit and this was a reaction to that.”