Prison failings 'contributed to killer's drug death'
Defects in the prison regime at the North's top-security jail contributed to the death from drug poisoning of a convicted murderer, an inquest jury found today.
They recommended more frequent searches of cells at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim and stricter action to be taken if guards suspected drug use.
INLA man Neil Sheridan, 28, was serving life for the murder of a former police officer in an Armagh supermarket car park when he was found collapsed in his cell last September.
He had a seizure while being taken to the prison hospital from his cell and died by the time he was taken to Belfast City Hospital by ambulance.
The jury found that without access to drugs in prison Sheridan would not have died of ecstasy poisoning.
Finding the death was accidental, the jury of six women and three men said there were defects in the prison system which contributed.
They heard during evidence from a prison officer earlier in the day that drugs were “part of prison culture”.
Prisoners had ways and means of obtaining illegal drugs in the jail, prison officer Andrew McIlwrath told the Belfast inquest.
They could be taken in by inmates returning from parole or by visitors, he said.
Efforts were made to prevent drugs entering the jail, he said. But he added: “Drugs can be concealed in certain parts of the body we can’t search.”
He said it would take a full strip search and intimate search of inmates to counter the menace.
However he said there was a random search of two cells in prison blocks each day – and sometimes they turned up drugs.
The jury said more should be done.
There should be “more frequent searches of cells rather than just two per day for 102 prisoners”.
The jury added there should also be “stricter action taken if guards suspect drug use, for example if they smell cannabis smoke they should investigate where it is coming from”.
Sheridan was found naked and face down on the floor of his cell when it was checked at around 12.30am on the day of his death.
He failed to respond to shouts from prison officers through the locked door of his cell and the raised the alarm to get a key brought to open the door when he finally moved and revealed he was covered in blood.
Warder McIlwrath that at first he thought Sheridan had slashed his wrists and was unconscious.
In fact, he was dazed after falling and cutting his head on the cell floor.
“He got to his knees and the his feet but slipped on the blood and fell. He tried to get up again and fell against the sink. He got up again and sat on the edge of his bed. I told him to stay there,” said Mr McIlwrath.
He said the emergency procedure was put into operation and a senior officer called with keys to open the cell door. A nurse also attended and bound an injury to the prisoner’s forehead.
Sheridan was put into a wheelchair to be taken to the prison hospital and had a seizure while en route, he said.
The prisoner was attended by a doctor before being put in the ambulance which took him to hospital, he added.
A post mortem exam showed he had died after being poisoned by a high concentration of ecstasy in his body.
There was no immediate response from the Prison Service to the jury criticisms and recommendations.
