A man attacked by a group of prisoners in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison days after his latest sentence was imposed has died in hospital, where he had been on a ventilator since last Friday.
Gardaí are now expected to upgrade their investigation to a murder inquiry. Separate inquiries are also under way by the Irish Prison Service and the Inspector of Prisons, which investigates every death in Irish jails.
Gardaí are investigating if Robert O’Connor, from Snowdrop Walk, Darndale was lured to another prisoner’s cell last Friday. Investigations to date suggest he left his cell in the C-Division area of the jail and went with one other prisoner to another cell where he was assaulted. It is believed four men were involved in the attack.
The 34-year-old’s death was confirmed on Wednesday morning by the Irish Prison Service, some five days after he was assaulted at about 5.40pm last Friday. He had been on a ventilator in the Mater Hospital since his admission.
A postmortem on his body was due to take place on Wednesday.
While gardaí are awaiting the results of that examination before their investigation is could be formally upgraded, all of the resources of a murder investigation have been committed to the case.
O’Connor had initially been jailed in the prison’s A-Division after he was transferred to Mountjoy, from Cloverhill Prison, west Dublin, in February. When a dispute occurred on A-Division among a number of prisoners earlier this year, O’Connor was transferred to C-Division at his own request.
He expressed no concerns for his safety in that area of the jail and there was no intelligence suggesting he was in danger of being attacked. A drug user, he received a second sentence in the courts last Wednesday - for gun possession - but was fatally attacked 48 hours later.
While gardaí said O’Connor’s involvement in crime, disputes in the prison system and also his history as a drug user were all possible motives for the attack, they had not ruled out the possibility the fatal beating was retaliation for a dispute linked to his personal life.
Although prison staff quickly went to aid the victim, the men responsible had fled the landing, although a number of suspects have been identified and are at the centre of the Garda’s investigation.
Four men suspected of being involved in the attack are being housed apart from each other in the jail and items, including clothing, were seized from them for examination by the Garda.
The areas where the attack occurred, including O’Connor’s cell and the landing outside, was sealed off and examined by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
O’Connor was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to the Mater hospital beside the prison and was placed on a ventilator. He sustained head injuries in the attack.
CCTV footage was being gathered from cameras in the jail in a bid to establish if the attackers were recorded entering and fleeing O’Connor’s cell. Gardaí are working on a definite line of inquiry and have already identified suspects.
A number of items, including clothing, have been seized as evidence from Mountjoy Prison, and gardaí are hopeful CCTV images, forensic testing of the items seized and investigation of the crime scene will help identify the attackers.
Confirming the man had died, the the Irish Prison Service said it wished to extend its “deepest sympathies to his family and friends at this time”.
“The incident continues to be investigated by the Irish Prison Service and the gardaí. In addition all deaths in custody are subject to investigation by the Inspector of Prisons,” it added.
The killing is the first in an Irish jail since Graham Johnson, a 42-year-old father of three, was stabbed to death in Cork Prison in May, 2015, over what channel should be on the television.
O’Connor’s killing is the first in Mountjoy since Gary Douch (20) was murdered there in August, 2006. While Mountjoy was a once notorious jail, it has undergone extension renovation and improvements, including single-cell occupancy and the eradication of slopping out.
Just 48 hours before the attack, O’Connor was jailed for six-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the semi-automatic pistol in Finglas on October 13th, 2021. He had already been serving a sentence in Mountjoy for several months for another offence before his court appearance last week.
O’Connor claimed in court he agreed to carry a loaded semi-automatic pistol to pay off a drugs debt. On the day the gun was found, O’Connor was travelling in a car with another man on the N2, and as they drove towards Finglas they were spotted and followed by an off-duty garda.
The men the car and ran towards Charlestown shopping centre. Garda reinforcements began to arrive and chased them on foot. Both men were arrested, and O’Connor was caught with the loaded gun in a plastic bag. The gun had three rounds of ammunition in the magazine and one round in the breach. The bag O’Connor was carrying also contained two jackets, two pairs of gloves and two face masks.
Although O’Connor initially said he had the gun because he was in fear of his life, he later claimed he was carrying it to pay off a debt.
Judge Martin Nolan said O’Connor must have known the reason he was carrying the gun was “to bring it to third parties to shoot someone or injure someone” and as such he was highly culpable.
O’Connor’s previous convictions included drugs offences, stealing cars, criminal damage, theft and road traffic offences.
