O’Donoghue to be released ‘in normal way’

PRISON Service bosses last night said Wayne O’Donoghue’s release from prison tomorrow would be handled in the same way as that of any other inmate, unless there was a threat to his safety or public order.

“There is no obligation on the Irish Prison Service to spirit prisoners away or shield them from publicity,” said a spokesman last night. “But there is an obligation on the service to maintain, insofar as is possible, safety and good order in events involving prisoners.”

The spokesman declined to comment on O’Donoghue’s case specifically, but acknowledged few cases have generated as much publicity.

“We release 8,000 to 9,000 prisoners a year and you could count on one hand the number whose release generates media interest,” said the spokesman.

Trinity College Dublin law lecturer Mary Rogan yesterday likened the media and public interest in O’Donoghue’s leaving jail to the high-profile releases of republican subversives.

She said O’Donoghue was an “atypical” prisoner in a criminal justice system that had inadequate measures in place when re-integrating prisoners into society.

O’Donoghue, who is serving four years for the 2005 manslaughter of schoolboy Robert Holohan, is to be released tomorrow from the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, Co Laois.

O’Donoghue, aged 23, has earned the maximum remission of 25% or one year in his sentence for complying with prison rules during his time, making him eligible for release on January 16 — three years after he was first taken into custody.

“Prisoners are held under a warrant and we cannot hold them a day longer,” said the Irish Prison Service spokesman.

“But if a prisoner requests being released at 2pm rather than 8am because they have a train to catch in the afternoon, then we would accommodate them.”

In a public speech last year, the trial judge in O’Donoghue’s case, Mr Justice Paul Carney, said that the former student “has no future in this country when his time is served” following tabloid media and television coverage of the case.

The High Court in Dublin will today stage a preliminary hearing in O’Donoghue’s action against TV3 for alleged libel.

He is also suing four newspapers.