Independent forensic examination of the clothes of a man who died in hospital after being in Garda custody has found extensive blood-staining, the inquest into his death will be told today.
Terence Wheelock (20), Summerhill, Dublin, was found unconscious in a cell at Store Street Garda station last June after he apparently attempted to hang himself with a cord from his tracksuit bottoms.
He was taken to the Mater hospital by ambulance but never regained consciousness. He died there 3½ months later on September 16th, 2005. His family alleges that the circumstances of his death differ from the Garda version of events and that he was mistreated while in a cell.
An inquest into Mr Wheelock's death was adjourned last month so that State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy and Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell could view photographs that are said to show abrasions and minor lacerations to the man's body. The pictures were taken by a clinical photographer at the Mater the day after his admission and were presented to the court by the Wheelock family's legal team.
The Wheelock family's forensic experts from the UK carried out the examination of his clothes in the last couple of weeks and the level of blood-staining is said to be of "major magnitude".
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) directed in February that there be no prosecution in relation to Mr Wheelock's death.
Securing Mr Wheelock's clothing and the ligature used in his death for independent examination came after months of legal wrangling between the family's legal team and the Garda Commissioner's office. Permission was denied for the clothing to be sent to the UK and the family's experts were eventually permitted to carry out the testing in the Forensic State Laboratory.
Michael Norton, a forensic scientist at Garda headquarters who examined the ligature used in Mr Wheelock's death as well as his clothes, told the last sitting of the inquest that there were blood stains on some of Mr Wheelock's undergarments.
The inquest will be heard briefly today before it resumes in full in the new year.