Condolences offered to man’s family after inquest jury return narrative verdict

A jury at Cork City Coroner’s Court has returned a narrative verdict after hearing how a man found bleeding, ranting, and raving in a neighbour’s garden suffered cardiac arrest due to excited delirium syndrome following restraint by gardaí.

Kevin Meehan, 39, a father of two who lived at 43 Dunard, Lotamore, in Mayfield, Cork, was arrested in the back garden of 13 Dunard, at around 1am on December 20, 2011, under Section 12 of the Mental Health Act. He fell ill while handcuffed in the back of a Garda van, and was rushed by ambulance to the city’s Mercy University Hospital, where he died just after 9pm that night.

Before his arrest, he had smashed a coffee table and TV screen in his own house, before using his hands to break a shed window in his neighbour’s garden, causing a large laceration to an arm.