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.