Cork Prison officer hospitalised after ‘vicious’ inmate attack

A PRISON officer in his late 40s was attacked and then “repeatedly pummelled” as he lay semi-conscious on a landing of a wing in Cork prison yesterday.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) described the attack, which left the officer in hospital, as vicious and unprovoked.

The attack took place after the officer, who has 25 years’ service, asked an inmate if he wanted to go for a recreation break.

“The prisoner hit him twice and he fell to the floor, hopping his head off the steel railing. Despite the fact that he was almost unconscious the prisoner repeatedly pummelled him,” a fellow prison officer said.

“Colleagues came to his aid but he was bleeding profusely. he had head and facial injuries. His eye was even bleeding.”

Following the assault, which occurred at about 2.15pm, the officer was treated by prison medical staff. But his injuries were so severe he was taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

The POA said the prisoner who carried out the assault recently commenced a sentence for serious drug offences.

Concern has been raised by the POA about the increased frequency of serious assaults on its members in Cork prison.

POA general secretary John Clinton described the latest attack as a most serious incident.

“We must look at ways of dealing with the ongoing threat of assaults on our members. Each and every day at least one of our members experiences some threat or assault and it is evident that the frequency and intensity of the assaults is on the increase,” Mr Clinton said.

He said the POA was seeking an urgent meeting with senior officials of the Prison Service to discuss this and related incidents.

“Cork prison has very serious overcrowding issues and we have little doubt but this is a contributory factor to tension and violence,” said Mr Clinton.