A man who received a three year prison sentence last April for assaulting his four-year-old nephew and failing to seek medical attention when he suffered a seizure has committed suicide in prison.
The Prison Service has confirmed that a prisoner at Wheatfield Prison committed suicide on the evening of June 26th.
Although they have not named the prisoner, they have confirmed he was serving three years for assault causing harm.
It is believed the deceased was James McGreevy-Simpson (27), of Tymonville Road, Tallaght.
In April McGreevy-Simpson pleaded guilty to three counts of assault causing harm and to two counts of wilful neglect of his now eight-year-old nephew between August 5th and 30th, 2000.
A Prison Service spokesman said the prisoner was under special observation and was discovered hanging from his cell window at 8.55 p.m on the evening of Saturday, June 26th.
Prison officers resuscitated him at the scene and he was still alive when he was removed to Tallaght Hospital. He received further treatment at the hospital but died at 10.15 p.m that evening.
McGreevy-Simpson and his partner had volunteered to take the boy for two weeks to give his mother a break as she had four young children aged one to six. When the child's mother was summoned in the early hours of the morning he was found to have "well in excess" of 35 to 40 bruises on his body and had twice suffered serious seizures.
The court heard that at the time of the assaults, McGreevy-Simpson had been a heroin addict but subsequently received treatment for his addiction.