Anger as inmate who threatened to kill warden returned to same facility

THE justice system has been accused of failing to protect its staff after a violent convict who threatened to kill a prison warden during his trial for assaulting the official was sentenced to the same jail where his target works.

Gerard O’Riordan, of 26 Arbutus Grove, Killarney, Co Kerry, was ordered to serve an extra year of his sentence at the overcrowded Cork prison. During his trial for assaulting the warden, O’Riordan, who is already serving 14 years for manslaughter, shouted from the witness box that he was going to kill Daniel O’Keefe.

On two other occasions during the hearing at Cork District Court last month the 29-year-old — who beat 30-year-old James Brazier to death in 2007 after finding him in bed with his brother’s 15-year-old ex-girlfriend — repeated the threat.

However, despite the clear danger to Mr O’Keefe, the court ordered O’Riordan to continue to serve his sentence at the overcrowded Cork prison, in close proximity to his potential victim.

After a week of concern‘s raised by staff members, O’ Riordan has since been moved to Mountjoy jail in Dublin to serve the remainder of his sentence, which is due to end in 2024.

However, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has criticised the initial decision to place him in the same jail as a prison officer he had repeatedly threatened to kill, stating that it is further proof jail staff are not always protected from violent inmates.

“We know very well there are these type of prisoners in prison, but our members are not always kept safe,” a POA spokesman said. “It’s ironic this happened at Cork prison because it does have a specific area for more problematic prisoners, but most other prisons don’t have that. We’ve been calling for a dedicated facility for more dangerous prisoners, which hasn’t been built.

“But given the pressures on the system, even if they did open one for 20 prisoners it would be filled with about 60 in no time.”

The situation emerged after the Prison Chaplains’ annual report detailed a catalogue of overcrowding problems in Ireland’s 14 jails which are seriously hampering the safety of those working and living within them.

The document noted that, while Cork prison was built for a prisoner population of 146 people, and has a “bed capacity” of 272, it has housed a massive 334 inmates — 150% higher than the official population ceiling — at times this year.

The figures are mirrored in other parts of the country, with both Mountjoy and Limerick prisons considered by an EU report to now be “unsafe” for both staff and inmates due to overcrowding and the linked issues of drugs and violent assaults within the facilities.