Brian’s last words: ‘They’re after killing me too’

A TEENAGE boy yesterday broke down in tears as he recalled the final words he shared with Brian Rossiter, the 14-year-old who died after falling into a coma in garda custody.

Anthony O’Sullivan said he had been in a garda cell beside his friend, Brian Rossiter, and had heard a “scream”.

Both were arrested at separate times as gardaí in Clonmel investigated a window-breaking incident on September 10, 2002.

Mr O’Sullivan claimed he heard the scream and Brian Rossiter’s cell door being locked.

The youth told RTÉ’s 5-7 Live reporter Philip Boucher-Hayes that he called out to his friend.

In the radio report, broadcast yesterday, the youth said: “I called out, ‘Brian’. He said ‘what’. I said, ‘they’re after killing me’. He replied, ‘they’re after killing me too’.”

Mr O’Sullivan said they were the last words he shared with his late friend.

He cried as he told the reporter he misses his friend. “Every time I hear something about someone dying, it comes back to me head,” he said.

After being held overnight, Mr O’Sullivan claimed he was asked by gardaí to “wake up” Brian.

“Brian was lying there, shaking, barely breathing. I was shocked, I tried three times to wake him.”

Five days after Brian Rossiter died in Clonmel Hospital, Mr O’Sullivan approached a solicitor. Later, an official complaint was made about the alleged behaviour of gardaí.

When asked by gardaí if he wished to pursue a complaint against his alleged assailant, Mr O’Sullivan said he dropped the allegation on the advice of his mother.

He told RTÉ: “I was only 14 at the time. My mother didn’t want me to make a case. She was terrified I would be harassed if I did.

The youth also claimed members of the public witnessed his arrest. He alleged his arm had been twisted behind his back, nearly up to his neck, by a garda as they walked to the station.

“I was screaming, I was saying ‘stop, you’re breaking my arm, you’re breaking my arm’”.

The youth is likely to be among the witnesses to a statutory inquiry into Brian Rossiter’s death, announced this week by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

The minister, who appointed senior counsel Hugh Hartnett to conduct the inquiry, also apologised to the Rossiter family for the manner in which the case had been dealt with by his department.