Prisoner alleges he was tied up and sexually assaulted in St Patrick’s young offenders’ jail

Investigations are under way into an incident in St Patrick's Institute for Young Offenders after a prisoner alleged he was tied up and sexually assaulted in a cell. He was taken for medical treatment and returned to the jail where he claims he was subjected to an assault the following day.

The incidents come just weeks after a damning report into conditions and abuses of prisoners by a small number of staff at the north Dublin facility. Following its publication Minister for Justice Alan Shatter insisted reforms had been put in place.

The victim of the latest alleged attacks is 20 years old. Immediately after the first incident he was taken for an examination to the sexual assault unit of Dublin's Rotunda Hospital.

He was returned to the prison that evening and was allegedly physically assaulted in the exercise yard the following day by other prisoners who believed he had supplied information to the prison authorities about the first attack. The attacks occurred on March 14th and 15th.

The Irish Prison Service confirmed allegations had been made and were being investigated. It could not comment on the nature of the attacks.

The Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly is also investigating. The placement of the prisoner back into the same environment where he had alleged a sexual assault by other prisoners earlier that day, and where he was physically assaulted the following day, will form part of his investigation.

A Garda unit has also begun a criminal investigation. In the days after the alleged assaults there was a riot in the library when four prisoners barricaded themselves in with a number of staff. The library was extensively damaged.