THERE is a continuing feud between prisoners from Cork and Limerick on Spike Island, with the Limerick men known as "Apaches" because of their liking for using knives and blades in fights, Cork Circuit Court heard yesterday.
A former inmate said Limerick prisoners were "blade-happy" during a hearing in which another prisoner sued for slash injuries he received when he was attacked in the recreation hall.
Eric O'Brien, of Mangerton Close, The Glen, Cork, sued Ireland, the Attorney General and the Minister for Justice for injuries he received when he was slashed with a razor blade by a Limerick prisoner, Patrick Kelly of O'Malley Park, in August 1989, when they were both serving time in Spike Island.
He said he was sitting in the recreation hall watching television when Kelly came in and struck him on the back of the head with a sock filled with pool balls or batteries. He then slashed him with a razor blade on the face, hand and neck and he had to get stitches for the wounds in Cork Regional Hospital.
O'Brien said he bad asked for a transfer from Spike Island because be had been threatened by the Limerick prisoners a few weeks earlier. He was being constantly fouled by Kelly during a soccer match and he told him to lay off.
"The fellows from Limerick came around me with knives in their hands and told me they were going to do me. The young fellow Kelly gave me a punch in the head as the prison officer was taking me away from them and said `Watch your back'. I took it as a threat that he was going to cut me," said O'Brien.
He went to the governor and asked for a transfer for health reasons. He did this because he believed he was in danger of being knifed, but he was not moved until he left hospital, when he was transferred to Cork prison. Kelly was sent to Portlaoise.
A former prisoner, John O'Leary, said he saw three Limerick prisoners going into the "rec". One struck O'Brien on the head while another started throwing pool balls. Asked by Ms Loraine Sullivan about the situation in the prison, he said there was aggro" between the Limerick and Cork prisoners. "The Limerick fellows were blade-happy."
The Assistant governor, Mr Pat O'Riordan, said there was no record of a request by O'Brien for a transfer. He was not aware of a feud between the prisoners or of a problem with knives or blades. Prisoners were given razors to shave, and these were handed back to the prison officer on duty, who checked them to see that the blades had not been removed.
Judge A.G. Murphy said an officer was careless in not checking Kelly's razor to see if the blade had been removed, and for that reason the State must be held at fault. He awarded O'Brien £5,000 damages for the cuts and £10,000 against Pat Kelly, whom he had also sued, in a separate judgment.