AN INQUEST jury has called for a review of communications between gardaí and prison authorities following the death of a man who did not receive his prescribed anti-epileptic medication while in custody.
Seán Dinnegan (34), Mill House, Canal Avenue, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, was found dead in his Mountjoy Prison cell on May 21st, 2004, an inquest at Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday. A postmortem found he died from epilepsy.
Mr Dinnegan was arrested in Mullingar the previous day for failing to pay warrants to the value of €200 for public order offences and was to serve a five-day prison sentence.
Following his arrest, his brother- in-law, Oliver Dinnegan, brought a packet of anti-epileptic medication, Epilim, to the station for him. His sister, Kathleen Dinnegan, phoned Mullingar Garda station ahead of his arrival and explained to a garda that the tablets "were vital to Seán and it was a matter of life and death that he had them".
Garda Paul Martin took the tablets from Mr Dinnegan after speaking to his GP.
He did not give the medication to Mr Dinnegan. When he returned from his break, he found Mr Dinnegan had left with others for Mountjoy Prison, leaving the medication behind.
Garda Martin then rang the gardaí travelling with Mr Dinnegan but decided against saying anything about the medication as they were a good distance from Mullingar. "I did not mention the pills as I felt he would get them in Mountjoy," he said at an earlier sitting of the inquest.
When Mr Dinnegan arrived in Mountjoy he told the medical orderly, Liam Shannon, he suffered from epilepsy and he was to take Epilim twice daily, but he was drinking heavily and was not taking it.
Mr Dinnegan's cellmate, William Baker, said he had two epileptic fits overnight but despite knocking on the door he could not raise help. He found Mr Dinnegan stiff and lifeless in the morning.
The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.