A GARDA Ombudsman Commission investigation into the death of Dubliner Terence Wheelock, who died after being found unconscious in a Garda station, has found that gardaí did not cause his death. The Irish Timesunderstands while the investigation has identified a number of procedural shortcomings around the handling of prisoners in custody in cells in Garda stations, it has found no evidence that Garda mistreatment led to Mr Wheelock's death.
The commission’s findings will be outlined in a report due for publication this morning.
A spokesman for the Wheelock family last night expressed his disappointment with the report’s findings.
“We’re not happy about this at all; not one bit,” he said.
The dead man’s brother, Larry Wheelock jnr, was this morning expected to outline the family’s views in full.
An inquest into Terence Wheelock’s death found that he died of suicide.
However, the dead man’s family has always insisted he was not suicidal, and that he had been mistreated by gardaí.
Mr Wheelock (20), of Séan O’Casey Avenue, Dublin1, died in the Mater hospital in Dublin on September 16th, 2005. He had spent three months in a coma having been found unconscious in a cell in Store Street Garda station in the north inner city on June 2nd.
He was arrested at his home in Summerhill, Dublin, in relation to a Garda investigation into a stolen car.
His inquest, which concluded in July 2007, was told that Mr Wheelock hanged himself in his cell using a ligature fashioned from a cord in his tracksuit bottoms.
The jury at the inquest returned a majority verdict of death by suicide.
The Wheelock family has insisted that Mr Wheelock had no history of self-harm or depression, and has questioned why he would take his own life “out of the blue” when he was not in any serious trouble with gardaí.
The Garda Ombudsman Commission decided to investigate the death in the public interest following the conclusion of the inquest process.
The Wheelock investigation was the first ever “public interest” investigation undertaken by the commission.
The ombudsman commission’s inquiry investigated whether “any act or omission” by any Garda member during the man’s arrest or detention contributed to his death.