Doctor was called to cell and persuaded of need for drug

BACKGROUND:Foster faced the wall and there was blood trickling from his nose. He was unresponsive

ON THE night of Sunday, March 6th, 2006, Dwayne Foster was arrested by gardaí at the home of a friend in Kildare. He was wanted for the murder of Donna Cleary (22), killed at a 40th birthday party in Coolock the night before.

Foster did not go easily. It took three gardaí to subdue him, and Det Sgt Cormac Brennan admitted there was “an element of force used”. The postmortem later found 39 marks and bruises on his body, some of which were sustained during the arrest.

Taken to Coolock Garda station at 12.26am, he requested and saw a doctor and his solicitor. The doctor prescribed paracetamol and librium. Foster said nothing about wanting methadone.

At 5am, when gardaí changed shifts, he was asleep. When he woke he complained of headache and asked for a doctor again.

Dr Peadar Kirke attended him at 10.15am. He told the doctor he was a drug addict on a methadone programme at a clinic in Ballymun. He needed 60ml of the drug a day, he said. The doctor tried to confirm the facts with the clinic, but could not make contact.

Foster was not listed with the clinic or on any methadone programme. But he persuaded Dr Kirke he was, and he agreed to give him half the dose he sought.

The doctor was called a third time at 8.13pm that night. Foster wanted more methadone. On examination, he was also found to have bleeding of the inner ear. The doctor decided to refer him to Beaumont Hospital to rule out a skull fracture. He gave Foster a further 27ml of methadone.

Dr Kirke rang the hospital and explained the situation, and Foster was taken there without a referral note. On the way to the hospital, he was nodding off and had slurred speech. The hospital had diagnosed soft tissue injuries.

He was brought back to Coolock before 10pm. There was a change of gardaí on duty. Foster was interviewed by gardaí, took a phone call from his solicitor, and was brought to his cell.

He took a sleeping tablet also prescribed by Dr Kirke at 11.40pm. Duty Sergeant Thomas Walsh checked Foster at midnight by putting on his light and watching for a reaction. He repeated this every half hour. At 1.50am Foster asked the officer to switch off the night light because he was having trouble sleeping.

When the sergeant checked him at 2am he was not moving and seemed asleep. At 2.30am he was also motionless, so the officer got keys to the cell and went inside. Foster was facing the wall and there was blood trickling from his nose. He was unresponsive, had no pulse and did not appear to be breathing.

Emergency services were called at 2.44am. Gardaí tried to revive Foster using chest compressions. They did not try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When paramedic Vincent Savage arrived in the cell a garda was standing at the foot of Foster’s bunk.

They laid him on the floor, carried out CPR and used a defibrillator. He was rushed to Beaumont Hospital and pronounced dead at 3.17am.

A postmortem found he had died of methadone intoxication. A Garda Inquiry found there had been no third party involvement or additional methadone involved in his death. No charges were brought in relation to the death.