Inmate found dead in cell at Limerick Prison had heroin in his system, inquest hears

A PRISONER who died in his cell at Limerick Prison had taken heroin and would have “fallen into a very deep sleep and not woken up” - the Limerick coroner told an inquest.

Melvin McNamara from O’Malley Park in Southill died on June 27, 2019, after being found unresponsive in his cell at Limerick Prison.

A prison officer on his rounds noticed that Mr McNamara was sitting up on the top bunk with his head to the side and he thought something wasn’t right, so he asked the cellmate to check on him and he couldn’t get a response.

Mark Breen told the inquest that he “felt the prisoner may need medical attention.”

An ambulance was called and prison nurses performed CPR and used a defibrillator. Mr Breen said: “He was warm to touch, but limp as we lifted him.”

CPR was started at 7.50am, but it was unsuccessful and Mr McNamara was pronounced dead at 8.44am.

Solicitor for the man’s family, John Herbert, confirmed that the last check had been made on the prisoner just before 6am on the day Mr McNamara died.

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Colin Lawlor, a prison officer who was on duty from 8pm on June 26, said he patrolled the cells that night with both regular and irregular checks “as per standard operating procedures” and that he interacted with both Mr McNamara and his cellmate some time between 11pm and midnight and that Mr McNamara was reading a book and that “nothing appeared unusual or out of order.”

Various prison officers confirmed that Mr McNamara was not under special observation and so checks would have been done every one to three hours and Mr McNamara was checked on around seven times over the course of 12 hours.

Retired Chief Prison Officer Trevor Darling confirmed to the inquest at Kilmallock courthouse that the minimum amount of checks on a prisoner is five and that the checks on Mr McNamara exceeded that.

He also told the court Mr McNamara’s cellmate revealed that himself and Mr McNamara had smoked heroin, but was “evasive about where and when he got it.”

The family also told a priest that Mr McNamara had called them the night before, using what would have been an illegal phone in the prison.

The inquest heard that no illegal items were found in Mr McNamara’s cell.

Nurses who gave evidence at the inquest said that Mr McNamara was not responding to voices or touch, that he had no pulse and was mottled in colour, but felt warm to touch.

The court heard that the 40-year-old had been in prison since 2013 for possession of a firearm and attempted robbery and was six years into a ten-year sentence at the time of his death.

The post mortem revealed that there were “no injuries to suggest foul play” and that there was soot on a finger, which would indicate recent drug use.

Morphine was found in Mr McNamara’s system at a toxic, but low level. Heroin and cannabis were both detected.

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A verdict of misadventure - where death is an unintended outcome of an intentional act, was recorded by a jury of two women and four men.

Sympathies were passed onto the family from the Limerick Coroner John McNamara who said this was a tragic death for a “young man, no matter where it happened.”

Condolences were also given on behalf of An Garda Síochána, while the barrister for the Irish Prison Service told the court it was clear that Mr McNamara was “held in very high regard by his fellow prisoners and staff.”