Dundon appeals against prison isolation

Jailed Limerick criminal Wayne Dundon has brought a High Court action over what he claims is an unexplained and unjustified decision by the authorities at Cloverhill prison to isolate him from the mainstream prison population.

Dundon, who also claimed that he is being denied access to educational and training facilities at the prison, and has restrictions placed on his family's visits to him, says that his segregation amounts to a breach of his rights.

Dundon is currently serving a six-year prison sentence after the Special Criminal Court found him guilty of charges including making a threat to kill and intimidating a witness in proceedings.

That sentence was imposed last April, and Wayne Dundon (aged 34) of Linehan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick has been in Cloverhill Prison ever since.

Today at the High Court Padraig Dwyer SC for Dundon said solicitors for his client wrote to the prison authorities requesting that Dundon be removed from the section of the prison he is currently being held in.

They were also also that Dundon be provided with education, training opportunities as well as with open family visits.

Counsel said that in reply the Solicitors received a letter from the Prison Governor stating that Dundon was being held in the particular section of Cloverhill due to concerns for Dundon's safety, and that closed visits were the norm within the prison.

His client was not being kept in protective custody but was rather being subject to conditions normally reserved for prisoners who have committed serious transgression while in prison.

Wayne Dundon was not subject to any punishment for breaking prison rules and that keeping him in such conditions was unjustified, counsel added.

In his action against the Governor Of Cloverhill Prison the Minister for Justice Ireland and the Attorney General Dundon is seeking various orders including one that he be transferred out of block he is currently confined in to an ordinary cell block within the mainstream prison population.

In the alternative he is seeking a transfer out of Cloverhill into an ordinary block of another prison.

He is further seeking orders that the prison authorities allow him to associate with mainstream prison population, open visits with his family and to engage in structured activities for a period of not less than five hours a day, five days a week.

Mr Justice Michael Peart yesterday adjourned the application to next Monday.