Delaney makes headlines from behind bars

IT is a measure of Joseph Delaney’s reputation as a particularly notorious class of hardened criminal that even his own son was more than prepared to give evidence against his father in court.

But the 57-year-old gangster, nicknamed 'Cotton-Eye', is no criminal of the ordinary, decent variety.

Almost four years after he received a life sentence for committing one of the most brutal gangland murders in recent history, Delaney is again making headlines.

It has emerged that he was the prisoner who allegedly sexually harassed a female staff member at Castlerea Prison.

It proved the turning point in a series of such incidents which has prompted today's industrial action by employees at the Roscommon facility the first strike by prison staff in 15 years.

The conviction of Delaney in April 1999 for the murder three years earlier of 23-year-old Mark Dwyer represented a major breakthrough for gardaí in the investigation of gangland killings in Dublin.

Many senior detectives had been fearful the self-confessed drugs dealer was somehow going to thwart justice.

Delaney was only successfully convicted at the third attempt for what the trial judge described as an "evil and foul" murder of "unspeakable savagery".

Such was Delaney's power and influence that several attempts were made by his associates during the first two aborted trials to intimidate members of the jury.

Special security measures had to be introduced to the court during the third trial after the jury foreman expressed serious concern about the presence of certain people in the courtroom.

It took them less than two hours to decide Delaney had tortured Dwyer for several hours at a house in Ballybough before his body was dumped in a field in northwest Dublin.

Delaney attempted to make Dwyer's murder appear like a revenge killing for the murder of another criminal Jock Corbally, for whom the young man was a prime suspect.

However, the true motive for Dwyer's killing is Delaney believed him responsible for the disappearance of 40,000 ecstasy tablets he had imported from Amsterdam.

Delaney, a separated father of three from La Rochelle, Naas, Co Kildare was also given a 15-year jail sentence for the false imprisonment of Dwyer.

The case was notable for what was considered unprecedented co-operation from other criminals, including Delaney's own son, Scott, who were prepared to give incriminating information against one of Dublin's most violent drug dealers.

Scott Delaney, who is also serving a prison sentence for his own role in Dwyer's killing, recounted how his father had punched him in the face when he pleaded with him not to kill Dwyer.

News of Delaney's latest episode of harassment indicates the former taxi driver and factory worker who has a string of convictions from running a brothel to assault and drunk driving, has not exactly reformed during his years in jail.