Security charges are urged following attack

TWO prison officers stabbed with a blood filled syringe during an escape attempt by a young remand prisoner, will learn in the next few days whether the blood was HIV positive.

Should tests prove positive, the two officers will then face a wait of about six months before further tests can be done to see if their bodies have produced the reaction which follows being contaminated with the HIV virus.

The attack on the two men has prompted renewed calls from the Prison Officers' Association for legislative changes. The association is also seeking new "tabling" equipment for use during escort duty.

Mr Tom Hoare, a spokesman for the association, said escort duty was now becoming one of the most dangerous duties in the prison service.

The two officers were injured during a violent escape attempt as two prisoners were being brought from St Patrick's Institution to the Mater Hospital casualty unit last Sunday at about 7.30 p.m.

The prisoner who tried to escape, who is understood to be 20 and awaiting trial on a robbery charge, was receiving treatment for a chest wound which had been self inflicted using a blade. The second prisoner had similar injuries to his back.

The two men were brought to the Mater by four prison officers, and a supervising officer. Both prisoners were handcuffed to prison officers and had been strip searched prior to leaving the prison.

While in the casualty unit, the prisoner with the chest wound complained of feeling ill, bent over, put his hand inside his trousers and produced a blood filled syringe. Mr Hoare said the prisoner had the syringe concealed in his rectum.

A violent struggle ensued during which the supervisory officer and the officer handcuffed to the prisoner were both stabbed with the syringe.

With gardai and extra prison officers due to arrive, it was decided for safety reasons to remove the handcuffs from the prisoner.

Medical personnel and members of the public were threatened by the prisoner, who then jumped through a plate glass window and made his way to North Circular Road, where he tried to force a motorist to drive him away. However, gardai blocked the route of the car and the prisoner was overpowered and arrested.

"There was a considerable amount of the inmate's blood in the area (from his wound)," Mr Hoare said. Officers at all times treat Anmates blood as potentially HIV positive. The two injured officers received treatment in the Mater.

Mr Hoare said there was a need for legislative change so that attacks involving blood filled syringes could lead to charges of attempted murder, rather than simple assault. Mr Hoare also called for the right to carry out compulsory blood tests on prisoners. Such a right existed in the US, he said.

Although a blood test cannot be carried out on prisoners without, their consent, the gardai have the right, as part of their investigation into this prisoner's escape attempt and the attempted hijacking of the car, to have the blood in the syringe tested.

Sunday's escape attempt comes just over a week after Michael Cahill, brother of the late Martin Cahill (the man known as The General), escaped from custody when he threatened officers with a syringe while being transferred from Mountjoy Prison.

Mr Hoare said prison officers did not conduct "internal" searches of prison but that issue have to be considered.

"It used to be that people smuggled syringes into the prison, and they were considered to be valuable and rare. There is obviously a lot of them in the prison now. Unless we get our act together, we are facing a very widespread problem here."

On Thursday, the POA is to meet officials from the Department of Justice. The guidelines on escorts and the equipment used will be discussed.

"Handcuffs are obviously not working." The association would not be against the use of "new technology" such as a disabling, gas, Mr Hoare said.