The family of a 14-year-old boy who died after being removed in a coma from a garda station, tonight said the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, had failed to act on the matter.
Cian O'Carroll, a solicitor for Brian Rossiter's parents, said Mr McDowell had been in possession of a report into the youngster's death in 2002 since last summer.
“I discovered the (Garda) Commissioner sent through two reports to the Minister. One in June of 2004 and the other just three-weeks before the Minister gave us a reply saying it was a Garda matter in August of 2004,” the solicitor said.
The boy's parents claim he died following an assault while in custody in Clonmel Garda Station and have begun legal proceedings alleging wrongful death.
However, Gardaí have said the assault was due a fight with an older man days earlier.
A spokesman for the Justice Department said: “The Minister has received an extensive report from the Commissioner today and he is considering it. He will have to consider it first.”
The Department confirmed it had previously received a report from the gardaí.
However, the spokesman added: “That was a very brief report in relation to the autopsy.”
The solicitor said it was 18 months since he informed the Minister of the matter and almost three years since Brian's death.
Mr O'Carroll added: “He hasn't acted on countless occasions now, he has had opportunity to act. He seems to be either incapable or unwilling to act in this most serious of matters.”
Brian was taken into custody in Clonmel on September 10, 2002 - two days after the fight. He was then found comatose in his cell the following morning and died two days later in hospital.
Brian's father, Pat, said: “He did complain of headaches I believe, I hadn't spoken to Brian. I wasn't aware until that night that there had been an assault on Sunday night.
On the Tuesday - just days after the fight on Sunday night - he was arrested by gardaí on a public order offence involving a broken window.
Mr Rossiter said he consented to his son being held overnight in custody cell in Clonmel Garda Station to give him a “short, sharp shock“.
He said that the following morning he was told to go to the hospital rather than the garda station.
“I was immediately met outside the doors by a group of detectives, one of them approached me and suggested that Brian had taken a lot of ecstasy and basically he had overdosed,” Mr Rossiter said.
However, after Brian's death the family had two sets of blood tests carried out which came back negative for alcohol and drugs.
PA