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THE DEATH OF Mountjoy Prison inmate Gary Douch, who was kicked and strangled to death by fellow inmate Stephen Egan in August 2006, was “avoidable and should not have happened”.
The Report of the Commission of Investigation into Douch’s death was published today and outlined problems in the management of Egan.
The report outlines “systemic failures” and how Egan had been recorded as “a disruptive and potentially violent prisoner” but his subsequently handling did not adequately reflect this.
Egan has since been convicted of manslaughter by diminished responsibility. A month before the killing, he had been transferred from the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum to Mountjoy.
The report states that the decision to transfer Stephen Egan to Mountjoy on 29 July was arrived at “without any regard to his on-going need for psychiatric care and treatment”.
Douch was beaten, kicked and strangled to death in an unprovoked attack before being left overnight under a mattress or duvet. Media reports at the time indicated that the other people in the cell were too frightened of the killer to raise the alarm or call for a guard.
In the November prior to the fatal attack, Egan was also transferred from Cork Prison to Cloverhill but the report states that this was not managed properly either.
Futhermore, there was no review of Egan’s behaviour during this transfer and the failure to do so was a missed opportunity to assess if it was linked to the deterioration in his mental health.
Apology
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter TD, and Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch met with the late Gary Douch’s mother and other family members today, issuing an apology on behalf of the state:
The Commission of Investigation’s conclusion is clear – his death was avoidable and should not have happened. It is only right that I apologise on behalf of the State and Irish Prison Service to the family of Gary Douch. I hope this report helps to clarify for them what happened that night, what should have been avoided, and what can be learnt to ensure there is no possibility of this happening again.
The Commission of Investigation was undertaken by Gráinne McMorrow SC and recognised that essential improvements have been put in place since Douch’s death.
But further recommendations include more work to implement ‘alternatives to custody’ options. The report states that alternative sentencing options could deliver measureable benefits all round.
The full report and summaries into the death of Gary Douch can be accessed here
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I don’t understand how five guys could stand there and watch a man being beaten to death. I just cannot understand this at all. FIVE of them.
I don’t understand how you can cram 7 grown men into a cell for 23 hours a day and not expect terrible things to happen. This is not how a civilised country treats prisoners
It’s hard to understand alright, but that’s easy for me to say from the comfort of my office desk, as much as I’d like to think I would be brave enough to intervene, I can also imagine how I could think differently if I was locked in a cell with a violent thug, where there’s probably an unwritten code of behaviour between prisoners not to get involved or call for a prison guard.
So right Paul, these human sheep pens are utterly inhumane and unnatural.
A civilised country locks up the proper people ( bankers etc) . Sick of people crying like girls , don’t do the crime and you’ll never see inside a cell , unless u don’t pay water charges
I talked before to one of the prison guards first on the scene. He said even the most violent of books and movies have nothing on the reality of the torture Mr Douch was put through. Poor kid
Because everyone in the whole prison system, prisoners and guards, were absolutely terrified of him. I had to transport him once and five prison officers accompanied me. They said that if he went nuts, then the lot of us were dead, even 6 of us wouldnt have a chance against him. He was the size of a silverback gorilla.
I was called for jury duty for this case. Thankfully I didn’t get selected but I saw the accused from a short distance and I can tell u this much, he wasn’t the type of guy you tell to settle down….
You’ve obviously never experienced true fear.
You’d put a mad silverback to sleep….permanently
Have you seen the size of Paul Egan?
Stephen Egan, the murderer of Gary Douch is absolutely huge. He had known affiliations to crime as did his brothers and was known as a rough and tough family too. Anyone in Mountjoy would have known not to mess with him. Unfortunately this had lethal consequences for the poor man. He shouldn’t have been put in a cell with a psychotic man in the first place.
this is ireland .. to day i asked the prime minister Mr Kenny about law order and justice when he was at puncherstown and he will get a 33 year file from me that will rock the courts the gardai and the leaders of the past goverments ,THE case was sent to the court of human rights and found to be wrong only to be sent back here to be buried by the corrupt gang in control with the papers gone missing what a corrupt state
Are you for real.Sitting at your desk.Somebody is paying you to use social media?You should join H.I.Q.U.A
Above for “weedy” cannibis freedom
Inhumane me b***ix once you enter prison your human rights should be waived it’s a holiday camp for most , at our expense, I’d have 20 to a cell if I’d my way too many do-gooders worrying about prisoners rights – their prisoners they shouldn’t have too many rights !
That’s not how human rights works Donal..,
Nice little rant. Given your disregard for basic human rights I can’t imagine it will be too long before you end up inside.
Slopping out, overcrowding, generally Dickensian living conditions…not my idea of a holiday camp!
Sounds like Mosney in the 80′s .
What about the rights of the people who were victims of robberies, false imprisonment, aggravated burglaries of these people? They didn’t consider their human rights when committing their crimes or the lasting effects the crime would have on that person/ family.
Meh !!! Red thumb away. Given that something like 400 people have been sent to prison in the last 12 months for non payment of the TV licence and that at any one time up to 50 % of prisoners in Cork are there for non payment of fines taking away the human rights and putting them 6 to a cell with a raving lunatic seems only right.
@ Donal; the point of prison is that these men are locked up away from society. Once locked in, the prison service has a duty to treat each prisoner like any human being. Otherwise, once a person’s rights are waived, it would be theoretically permissible for you and I to legally beat or kill them ourselves as soon as they commit a crime. Why drop those rights in prison if you’re going to keep them alive after their crime?
With that attitude you should be locked up and no doubt will!
But a couple of €angers the really screwed up the country with the nod from the governments regulator get COMMUNITY SERVICE????????? IF IT WASNT SO FCUKED UP ITD BE FUNNY
If we gave them some hard labour to go with their sentence for committing crimes maybe they would get rid of some of their anger
I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding of the kind of monster who did this if people think hard labour would have prevented this. Four other hardened criminals were afraid to make a noise while this guy slaughtered someone a meter away, so scary a figure he was.
Before I start I am not defending what happened just giving the background to it.
At the time of Gary Douche’s death Mountjoy was running at 200% capacity. It was the dumping ground for the Mad and the Bad, those that other prisons neither wanted or could handle.
The holding cell in question was exactly that a Holding cell meant for short term accommodation. All those in that cell that night were classed as Protection prisoners including Egan. Single cells in Mountjoy at the time were a rare luxury usually kept for trustee prisoners and Lifers. The vast majority were Double cells rising to quadrouple cells. And Protection cells were very limited in quantity.
Egan is an extremely dangerous individual when off his medication but is manageable when he is taking it. That day Egan had been transferred from Cloverhill prison to Mountjoy after being sent there from the Central Mental Hospital. And Douche had looked for protection status on the same day. We know now that Egan had been off his medication for several days by the time he had arrived in Mountjoy. So it was a perfect Storm scenario. Douche had no dealings with Egan prior to his death so it wouldn’t have set off any alarms to have them both in the same cell over night until protection accommodation was made available.
Had the Mountjoy Staff on the floor known Egan was off his meds from previous experience dealing with him they would have recommended to management that he placed in a padded cell until he had been assessed and medicated by the prison doctor as he would have been as much danger to staff as he turned out to be to Gary Douche. But a simple break down in communication lead to tragic results.
Mountjoy today is a very different place. Every cell is single occupancy. Every prisoner is risk and medically assessed on entry and where deemed needed placed on protection or in the mental health unit.
Good insight Mick. It sounds like a truly frightening scenario.
Mick you were too busy commenting on the journal, admit it ;)
Wouldn’t make a joke about this.
Your long stated letter herein is but part of the wrong of this state and the court of human rights accepts that mad and bad cannot be For this your actions herein is but PR and sad . The minister of justice Alen Shatters apology is fitting to the real truth and no amount of spin can change THAT MAD IS NOT BAD AND BAD IS NOT MAD in the real world of real truth .
But that doesn’t make it right Mick,,,,,I’ve spoken to 2 expos & they both said Egan is a sicko so it sounds like everybody knew but nobody CARED ?????
Typical public servants bs lazy excuse all that was needed to be done was for this cell to be monitored properly ,the poor chaps body wasn’t found till the next day shows how often it was checked,why no cameras in the holding cell simple things,why didn’t the prison officers do their Job properly their paid well enough by the tax payer for it,,now we get all the passing the book public service rubbish.
Great post Mick, but one thing that jumps out at me and that is where you say had ‘staff known he was off meds then they would have recommended he be put in a padded cell’. The question is ‘why’s didn’t management know? He came from the CMH, he was transferred to CH and then sent to MJ. Why was he off his meds? I think it’s unfair to blame staff ( as another headline suggests ) when they are not responsible for decisions regarding transfers. They have no say. Highly paid management and consultants make these decisions and staff on the ground are left to take the blame.
Typical lazy response from someone who clearly knows and wants to know nothing about the prison service. There was a litany of failures by management before Egan was even in MJ that night.
Paylyndo. As I said a simple breakdown in communication was responsible. It was not unusual at that time for a prisoners files to follow him a day or so after he had arrived. That was one of the many things corrected after the incident.
Executioner. Your remark shows you know nothing of the situation. At that time the cell doors didn’t have the 12” by 4″ viewing slot they do now. They had a 1″ spy hole to look through. And the Holding cell at the time was the same size as 3 normal cells combined. So when you looked into the cell you could only see at best 3/4′s of the cell leaving a large blind spot. And the Officer on duty that night was also resopnsible for over 30 other multiple occupancy cells. With each cell being checked every 30 mins. The night of the murder Egan had forced Douche into the blind spot in the cell. So blaming staff for not checking is false. As for cameras in the cell there were very few cameras in Mountjoy at the time and those that were there were for perimeter security. And If I am not mistaken in cell cameras are not permitted under European Human Rights legislation.
I struggle to understand you friend. Is English your first language?
The prisons in Ireland are an absolute breeze compared to other countries. I completely agree with Donal, prison is no deterrent over here!
Tell us more you seem to know a lot about Irish prisons
You’ve obviously never been to mount joy.
What are basing that on? Have you any evidence to support this?
Don’t be surprised Paul we see how a civilised country treats it’s old and it’s mentally ill it’s prisoners are way down the pecking order
May he RIP
Duty of care in the prison system?
When the authorities see fit to lock up a person for what ever reason, their job is to see that they do-the-time.
Not become victims of crime.
In prison one can’t run away , hide, evade or dodge, just trapped and at the mercy of the very worst of societies detritus.
Imagine a young man, perhaps a bit of a rebel or larrikin for some transgression winds up in prison, he is placed at the mercy and disposal of the quasi rulers-, the gangs, murders, male rapists who hold court within the prisoner community.
But then authorities do take away their shoe laces ensuring they don’t hang themselves as a means if escape .
The legacy of gypsy joe
The only people who could regard prison as a holiday camp are people who’ve never been there long enough. I feel so sorry for this young fellah and his family.
@ paddy : That’s a stupid argument really, I’ve never even had my name taken by a member of the Garda and I’m 30 so I’d say my law breaking days are hardly gonna start now. And this rehabilitation talk is nonsense , they don’t want to be rehabilitated once they get out they generally do their best to get straight back in , I have numerous friends working as PO’s and I grew up not too far from mountjoy I seen first hand some of these peoples actions with no regard for others so therefore shouldn’t be held in any regard by society some are born good some are born bad unfortunately that’s life
In the case of a certain section of prisoners, yes, I would agree with you that some of them are unlikely to change. But I cannot agree with you that this is true ‘generally’. I recall reading figures on recidivism and quite a few prisoners are young males between 17 and 25 and as they get older they turn their back on crime. Im obviously not talking here about seasoned committed criminals. I have spent a considerable number of years in prison myself (although I regard it as political, but lets set that debate aside for now), and I have met and spoke to many young men involved in criminal acts. I myself totally changed my own life skills in prison, much for the better I hope. Ive seen many others doit. Ive seen many others try. I dont think it is fair to lump everyone into a ‘general stereotype’ in order to set up the general denial of rights or to abandon any duty of providing them with the prospect of rehabilitation. But even for the trenchant criminal, Id say it is important to deny him his freedom (his own fault) in as safe an environment as possible.
Poor kid
@patlyndo you hit the nail on the head. Ask any member of staff that’s not promoted or looking for promotion, morale is in the toilet, personally if they offered me a deal to go I’d take it. I’m pre 95 so they could recruit 2 rpo’s and get twice the work. It’s all about cat A complaints now with no regards to your rights as a worker. I think I should’ve been a banker
@ mick jordan. Good article mick but tell it as it was back then. If a staff member raised the issue you’d be seen as a trouble maker, has changed a little now. Look for an extra body on an escort going out today and you would be in a dog fight to get it!!! Management just want it done as cost effective as possible, look at the smoking policy in our jails. State claims will tell you its cheaper to pay a claim. Everyone smokes everywhere
@bud, has anything really changed? Management terrified of breaching prisoners rights, scared of making decisions. At the moment some prisoners, violent convicted murderers engaged in litigation because they’re on 23 hour lock up away from General population. Prisons full of gangs and nobody gives a crap until something like this happens, then they wonder why?
Professed Harry Kennedy is a sham and shouldn’t be where he is!!!
Thats unfortunate last name.
Seriously?
Bad call Glenn
His death was completely avoidable, he could have avoided a life of crime, his choice.
An apology when the horse has bolted because some stupid C.U.N.T could not do there job.
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