Rossiter inquiry may be completed within weeks

A STATUTORY inquiry into the death of teenager Brian Rossiter after being found unconscious in a garda cell could be finished within weeks, a coroner was told yesterday.

Senior counsel Hugh Hartnett was appointed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell last September to investigate the circumstances of the 14-year-old’s arrest and detention at Clonmel Garda Station on September 10, 2002.

An adjourned inquest was listed for mention at Cork City Coroner’s Court yesterday morning. Brian Rossiter died in Cork University Hospital on September 13, 2002, two days after being found in a coma in the garda cell, where he had been held for alleged public order offences.