‘Vicious prisoner rewarded with cake and cola’

Providing a prisoner who had carried out 150 attacks on staff with cake and minerals on his birthday and €65 for “a party” was described as outrageous by the president of the Prison Officers’ Association.

At the POA’s annual conference in Co Clare yesterday, POA president Stephen Delaney said that the cake and minerals were given to the prisoner on his birthday while he was on a punishment regime in Portlaoise prison.

Mr Delaney said that prison management at Portlaoise also put €65 into the man’s account “for the purpose of having a birthday party”.