Inquiry into death of woman in housing scheme

The Department of Justice is investigating the sudden death of a young woman in a transitional housing scheme for women coming out of prison.

Natasha Gavin (21) from Dublin was found dead at the Tuas Nua (new start) centre on the North Circular Road, of a suspected heroin overdose on March 4th.

A source said she was found "with a tourniquet on her arm and a syringe by her side" in bed at the centre by morning staff. Gardaí at the Bridewell Garda station confirmed they were investigating the "sudden death of a 21-year-old woman whose body was discovered at 10am on March 4th".

Tuas Nua is a six-bed unit operated by the de Paul Trust, funded by the Probation and Welfare Service on behalf of the Department of Justice.

It is as a transitional housing facility for women approaching the end of their sentence at Dóchas women's prison and residents are chosen according to their suitability by the Probation Service.

Ms Gavin had been at Tuas Nua for about a month.

Pat Doherty, national director of the de Paul Trust, said the charity's "main concern" was for the woman's family.

"Beyond that we cannot comment any further as the inquest has not been held. The postmortem has been held but we have been asked by the gardaí not to comment beyond that there was a sudden death."

He said gardaí were satisfied, however, that there were "no suspicious circumstances" and no one else was involved.

Meanwhile, local residents have raised concerns about staffing levels at the centre if a resident was able to bring drugs into the premises and particularly about supervision at night.

Mr Doherty said the centre was staffed 24 hours a day.

"And each woman has an individual key worker working towards their eventual resettlement into their community.

"There is a very, very strict no drugs policy and the amount of alcohol is controlled."

He said accommodation was bedsit style and being transitional housing, they were afforded a level of privacy they would not have had in prison.

"Staff are not going into their rooms at night checking on them," he said.

The de Paul Trust, a British charity affiliated to the Society of St Vincent de Paul, has been working in Ireland since 2002.

It has worked in particular with homeless young people and was the first organisation to open a "wet" hostel for homeless street drinkers.

An inquest into Ms Gavin's death was unlikely to be held before September, a spokesman for the Coroner's Court said.