A man who claimed he was held in inhumane conditions in a holding cell in Mountjoy Prison was never in a position where the authorities intended to leave him there, a High Court judge has said.
Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, at a sitting of the High Court on Saturday, was told an inquiry into the lawfulness of the detention of Jonathan Duffy, Tallaght, Co Dublin, would not go ahead as he had gone to Clover Hill prison.
She refused an application for costs made on behalf of the prisoner. Had the application gone ahead, she said, the applicant would have had to show the prison authorities had not the intention to move him. She said the authorities never intended to keep him in the conditions described in the holding cell.
On Friday, the High Court directed an inquiry into Article 40 of the Constitution into the lawfulness of Duffy's detention on the grounds they violated his human and constitutional rights and were a risk to his health.
Nial Durnin SC, for Duffy, had told the court that his client who had been sentenced to three months imprisonment last Wednesday, was kept for two nights in a holding cell at Mountjoy Prison where he slept on stained mattresses on the floor in a rodent-infested cell with seven other prisoners.
On Saturday, Mr Durnin said they were told his client had been transferred to Clover Hill on Friday night and as such the issue on circumstances was moot.
The accused was held on June 7th-8th, however, in circumstances which would have fully justified an inquiry into the circumstances of his detention. He therefore made an application for costs.
Michael Bowman, counsel for the prison governor, said the accused was not moved as a result of Friday's court case. The transfer order was applied for earlier and was granted at 6.21pm on Friday.
"So the process of transfer was in process before the court case," he said.