An inquest into the death of a prisoner was adjourned yesterday after a witness alleged that parts of his original statement to gardaí had been omitted.
Patrick Donoghue (33), Coultry Road, Ballymun, was found unconscious in his cell at Cloverhill Prison at about 9.15am on January 3rd, 2006.
The prisoner was rushed to the A&E department of Tallaght hospital where despite intensive resuscitation efforts he was pronounced dead at 10.50am.
Prisoner Richard O'Reilly, Southern Cross, Inchicore, told the court Mr Donoghue became his new cell-mate on January 2nd, the day before his death.
He said Mr Donoghue was "all right" when he first met him, but he later became "stoned" and had to ask his [ Mr O'Reilly's] name several times.
The two watched a film in the cell that evening and at 12.30am he said he believed that Mr Donoghue asked the officer for a painkiller for a headache. Mr O'Reilly said that the next morning a female officer called him at about 8.30am for a court appearance.
"He [ Mr Donoghue] was lying on the bed - falling outwards and I couldn't hear any noise from him. There was sick on the floor. He wasn't well. I thought he was asleep, but he looked unwell. I told the officer," he told the court.
He told the court this had been left out of his statement. "I said that to the garda that took my statement . . . and when they did read it back to me it was exactly what I said. But when Mrs Bambury [ solicitor] read it back to me there were bits left out."
Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty told Ms Bambury he did not think she should have interviewed a witness prior to the inquest and adjourned the inquest to a date in November to seek further information.
A postmortem carried out by the Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, found Mr Donoghue died after inhaling vomit in his sleep after taking methadone.
Mr Donoghue was on a methadone treatment programme at Cloverhill Prison since December 31st, the day after his arrival there, the inquest heard.
A toxicology screening found he had 0.18 micrograms per mil of methadone in his blood at the time of his death, as well as 0.28 micrograms per mil of nordiazepam, possibly a breakdown product of the Librium Mr Donoghue was on in Cork Prison prior to his transfer to Cloverhill.
Dr Curtis told the court that the levels of both drugs found in Mr Donoghue's blood were within the therapeutic range.
"The combined effects of methadone and the benzodiazepine would have resulted in unconsciousness and would have depressed his cough reflex," Dr Curtis told the court."
Nurse officer Ashling O'Dwyer told the court the medical staff at Cloverhill had been unaware that Mr Donoghue had been transferred from Cork Prison or that he was on Librium during his week there when they selected him for the methadone treatment programme. She said the prisoner had never informed them of this.
Det Garda Noel Doolan told the court when prison officer David Burke returned from his breakfast at 9.40am on January 3rd, prisoner Karl Dunne told him there was something wrong with Patrick Donoghue, at which point the medical staff were alerted.