Prison officers sprayed with blood

Two prison staff are due to undergo tests after an inmate squirted them with his blood when they foiled a drug swap during a hospital visit.

It is not clear if any the blood went into either officers’ mouth or if they had any open cuts, but the two men will be medically assessed for possible transmission of blood-borne viruses, including HIV.

The assault took place at 1.10am yesterday at the Mater Hospital during an escort from Mountjoy Prison.

Sources close to the officers said a visitor tried to pass a parcel of drugs to the inmate.

“When the prison officers attempted to retrieve and confiscate the drugs the prisoner pulled the intravenous needle from his arm and sprayed the officers with his blood,” said a source.

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He said that they brought the prisoner back to Mountjoy: “He struggled the entire way back and assaulted the prison officers on the escort.”

The source said the inmate was a known drug user, but that his health status was unknown. “The two officers have gone off duty and tests will have to be done — and there is a long and anxious wait on the outcome of those tests,” he said.

The prisoner, aged 35 and from Crumlin, south Dublin, is serving a two-and-a-half year sentence for robbery.

Separate sources confirmed the incident and said a “large quantity of tablets” was found in the inmate’s possession by the officers.

Following such incidents, staff are recommended to go to their GP or to hospital and get medical advice.

“They will be assessed as to the level of risk they were exposed to — including how much blood was sprayed, where did it go, did any of it go into their mouths or had they any open wounds or cuts,” said one insider. “Based on that, further tests would be decided on.”

The Irish Prison Service said an incident took place at the hospital, but declined to comment on the specifics.

A spokesman said there were “staff support structures” in place to advise and support staff involved in any incident.

Over a week ago, a female officer at Cork Prison had a pipebomb thrown into her car outside her home — the second such attack against her in a fortnight. Just before that, two prison offi- cers received injuries by inmates using a brush handle in an unprovoked assault in Mountjoy Prison. Days before, at Wheatfield Prison, a convicted murderer punched a female prison nurse in the face.

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