Murderer may be moved to new secure isolation unit

PRISON bosses may consider moving a notorious murderer into a secure isolation unit due to be opened next week.

The purpose-built unit at Wheatfield Prison, Dublin, estimated to cost up to €750,000, can accommodate two prisoners and is designed for “high risk” inmates.

Prison authorities will consider moving Warren Dumbrell into it if he causes any problems with staff at the Midlands Prison, where he is being held.

The unit, which will be ready to take prisoners from next Monday, has its own recreation room, visitor’s room and exercise yard. Inmates would have no contact with other prisoners.

Prison sources said there were three experienced officers assigned to Dumbrell and that he wasn’t allowed any interaction with other inmates.

Staff at the Midlands prison have been on high alert since Dumbrell arrived on Thursday June 19 following his conviction for the murder of father-of-six Christy Cawley in October 2006.

Warren, and his brother Jeffrey both received mandatory life sentences for the brutal murder. Mr Cawley was repeatedly stabbed in front of his wife and three of their children, one aged just five at the time.

Dumbrell gained notoriety when he led a gang that held five prison officers hostage during a riot in Mountjoy Prison in 1997.

He held a blood-filled syringe to an officer’s throat, claiming he had ‘the virus’ and threatened to inject him with it.

On his arrival at the Midlands, Dumbrell demanded he be moved within a week to the old section of Portlaoise Prison, where many crime bosses are held. The E1 wing at Portlaoise, housing the likes of John Gilligan and has a more relaxed regime.

Dumbrell is being held on his own in a cell in the Midlands and is locked up most days for 23 hours.

“Warren is staying where he is. He can’t have free association [with other prisoners] and there are extra resources on him whenever he is moved around,” said a prison source.

He said there was already talk Dumbrell might be moved to the new unit in Wheatfield. “He would be an ideal candidate and if he causes any trouble people won’t be surprised if he is moved there.”