Anthony Cawley, a convicted rapist, was pronounced dead in Tallaght Hospital yesterday evening after committing suicide in a cell in Wheatfield Prison, Dublin. Cawley had been serving the longest sentence for sexual crime handed down in Ireland.
At about 4.45 p.m. he was found hanging in his single cell by prison staff, who attempted to resuscitate him. He was taken by ambulance to Tallaght Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6.10 p.m.
Cawley was sentenced in 1987 to 20 years for the rape and attempted murder of a woman in Dublin city centre in January 1986. He was aged 20 at the time of his conviction and was reportedly on temporary release from prison when the attack occurred.
In 1989 he was sentenced to a concurrent 10-year term for the attempted murder of another prisoner while in custody.
In 1998 Cawley became the first person to be successfully prosecuted in the State for "prison rape". He was sentenced to a further eight years for the rape of a cellmate in Arbour Hill Prison in September 1996. He threatened the prisoner with a razor blade during the incident.
During his trial he apologised to his victim and asked for psychological counselling in prison. He accepted that justice "had to be done and be seen to be done" by the imposition of a consecutive sentence, which would have run from 2002, when his previous sentences were due to expire.
Cawley had a history of inflicting harm on himself in prison. He was under observation in a segregated wing and was checked every 15 minutes. "This death will be investigated by the gardai and will be the subject of an inquiry in the form of a coroner's inquest, in accordance with normal practice," said a spokesman for the Prison Service.
Cawley's case was to be reviewed in 2006, by which time he would have spent a total of 20 continuous years in custody.
As a boy, Cawley was repeatedly raped in Trudder House boys' home for Travellers. He was originally from Dun Laogh aire and at one time had an address in Inchicore, Dublin.