Prison authorities are to meet the mother of a man who hanged himself in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison two weeks before he was due to be released.
The Irish Prison Service (IPS) yesterday denied claims at an inquest that the man who hanged himself at Mountjoy had just been denied temporary release to attend his son's Confirmation.
Anthony Spratt (31), Ratoath Drive, Finglas, Dublin, was found hanging from a tracksuit-bottom cord attached to a window in his cell on March 5th, 2005. He was serving a short sentence for road tax and insurance offences.
The inquest was adjourned in July to investigate why Mr Spratt was denied temporary release a week before his death and whether he had previously attempted suicide at Wheatfield Prison, as claimed by his family.
A report from the prison service submitted and read out at Dublin City Coroner's court yesterday stated that there was no record of an application by Mr Spratt requesting temporary release. The report also said there was "no record to support that there was any attempt of suicide" at Wheatfield Prison shortly before Mr Spratt was transferred to Mountjoy.
At the inquest yesterday, Margaret Spratt said that she did not accept the prison service finding that her son had not applied for temporary release. "His son's Confirmation was a very big thing in Anthony's life," she said.