Call for probe into teenager's death

The family of an 18-year-old who died after being released from Garda custody today demanded an independent inquiry.

John Maloney Junior, from Crumlin in Dublin, was arrested in May 2003 but was found unconscious shortly after being released and died 11 days later in hospital.

His 48-year-old father, Johnny Maloney, said the family wanted an independent inquiry because they could not believe that their son had died from a combination of drugs or alcohol.

“If he was like that, he couldn’t have walked out of the police station,” he said.

He claimed the family have been subjected to a campaign of garda harassment for highlighting the mysterious aspects of their son’s death.

A parking ticket was placed on their car when they went to visit his grave on Christmas Day in 2003 and their home has been raided for illegal fireworks.

“It’s been very rough for the family over the last two years. You’re still fighting your case and there’s no time for grieving,” said Mr Maloney.

The questions the family want answered include:

:: How could their son be released from custody in a healthy condition and then collapse 10 minutes later?

:: Why was there no record of him signing out of the garda station and no CCTV footage of him leaving?

:: Why did gardaí at Rathfarnam deny he had been in custody there when the family rang to ask the following day?

:: Why was he walking in the opposite direction to where he lived and why had no-one seen him on the route?

:: Was the garda investigation into his death properly carried out?

John Maloney Junior was in a car with a friend in Rathfarnam at around 8am on Sunday May 4, 2003 when they were arrested for a drugs search.

His friend was released from his cell at 9.35am without charge and was told John was being held over due to an outstanding warrant for driving without insurance.

At an inquest in Tallaght District Court last year, the sergeant on duty said John was released shortly afterwards and he walked out of the station “with a spring in his step”.

But he was seen stumbling and falling at a nearby estate at around 9.50am by a passer-by and an ambulance was called. He died in Tallaght Hospital on May 16 when the life support machine was switched off.

The family tried to find out where their son was that weekend but claim they were told by gardaí at Rathfarnam that he had not been in custody there.

Mr Maloney’s wife, Sandra, finally learned what had happened when a radio bulletin mentioned a young man with a “Johnner” tattoo being taken unconscious to hospital.

Professor Marie Cassidy carried out the post-mortem examination on the body and gave evidence at the inquest that a minute amount of cocaine had been found in his body. There was also a large quantity of alcohol.

Although she said the cause of death was possibly due to a reaction from cocaine, the jury returned an open verdict.

Mr Maloney said his son had probably hung around with people who smoked cannabis but had never been into drugs.

“He probably would have tried it (cocaine) for the first time but no way would it have killed him,” he said.

“He was a very jolly young fellow and he always had a lot of fun.”

Independent Socialist councillor Joan Collins said the Maloneys were an ordinary working class family who had been torn apart by the death of their son.

“There’s just a lot of questions that haven’t been answered and the family are really in limbo for the last two years. First of all, the trauma of losing their son and secondly not knowing exactly what went on,” she said.

The family’s relationship with the force has been extremely poor since, with John Maloney breaking his arm in a confrontation at a garda station shortly after the death.

In another incident, he went to visit his son’s grave in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Harold’s Cross on Christmas Day 2003 and found that a Garda had placed a parking ticket on their car outside.

Both he and one of his sons became involved in a verbal altercation with the Gardaí.

He pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and assault in court, and the charges were dropped against his son. He was bound over to keep the peace for a year.

Since then, their home on Cashel Road in Crumlin has been raided by gardai searching for illegal fireworks.

“They’re harassing us all the time,” said Mr Maloney.

He is now co-operating with the family of Terence Wheelock, who died in September, three months after he was found unconscious in a cell in Store St Garda station. Both families are collecting signatures for a petition calling for independent inquiries into the two deaths.

A Garda spokesman did not return calls seeking comment about the case.