THE father of a young remand prisoner who hanged himself told an inquest yesterday it was "folly" to put drug abusers in single cells.
Dublin City Coroner's Court heard that Mr Thomas Keane (19), of Clogher Road, Crumlin, was found in his cell at St Patrick's Institution sitting on a pipe with a bed sheet around his neck, which he had tied to a Perspex window with a shoelace.
A jury of four men and three women recorded a verdict of death by suicide in the case.
Speaking from the public gallery at the end of the inquest, Mr Desmond Keane said: "A person like my son should not be put on his own - that system is very, very wrong. With people like Thomas who are so badly affected by heroin, placing them in a single cell is folly, and here is the result of it."
Mr Keane was arrested in Casimir Avenue last June 22nd and taken to Rathmines Garda station, where he was charged with possession of an offensive weapon, a butcher's knife, and failure to appear in court on two previous occasions, according to Garda James Keane.
He was then taken to the Bridewell Garda station and remanded to St Patrick's Institution to appear in Dublin District Court six days later.
Dr Anthony McDonald, a medical officer at St Patrick's Institution, said he had been informed that Mr Keane smoked between eight and 10 "quarters" of heroin every day and also took physeptone.
He prescribed 40mg of physeptone for the first night, reduced to five mg the following nights.
Mr Paul Sanders, a prison officer, said the prisoner was sitting on the side of his bed at 9.55 p.m. on June 23rd. On looking into the cell at 10.05 p.m. he saw him suspended from the window by a ligature "in what appeared to be a sitting position."
Sgt John McMahon, of Fitzgibbon Street Garda station, said Mr Keane had been involved in petty crime since the age of 15, but it was only during the previous year that his parents realised what was happening to him.
When they discovered he had a drug habit, they took him to a doctor and later thought that he had overcome his addiction. "They did everything a family could do for a son," he said.