Shatter receives Gary Douch report 7½ years after the violent killing

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is studying a report into the murder of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison after it was forwarded to him last week, some 7½ years after the violent killing.

Douch was 20 when he was kicked and stamped to death by another prisoner in a holding cell in the prison basement in the early hours of August 1st, 2006.

His body was found covered by a blanket when staff went into the cell to investigate why he had not gone to breakfast.

The inquiry into the Dubliner’s 2006 murder has been beset with delays since it was established under Gráinne McMorrow SC, in 2007, with the Government cutting funding to it three years ago.

The physical infrastructure of the jail where Douch man was murdered has changed almost beyond recognition since the killing and many of those working in the prison at the time have since retired or moved on to other posts.

Staff
It is understood prison staff with whom the dead man was in contact in the period leading up to his murder will not be named in any version of the final report published by Mr Shatter.

The man who killed him, Stephen Egan, now 30, from Belcamp Crescent, Coolock, north Dublin, smeared excrement on the dead man.

Egan had been transferred from the Central Mental Hospital to Mountjoy just days before the murder. Despite having a schizo-affective disorder, he did not have his medication in the cell, where he had been placed because there was no room in the prison proper for him.

The other prisoners in the cell had been placed there for their own protection.