Bedlam in court holding cells

"There was blood and chicken and chips all over the wall. The place was covered"

Limerick solicitor John Devane is calling for prisoner holding cells at the District court to be upgraded after a series of fights over the last few days.

He says that a number of people attached to the city feud have been fighting in the holding cells while awaiting court appearances.

Speaking to Live95FM,

“The holding facilities in the cells are absolutely tiny; you wouldn’t swing a cat inside in them. And they’re expected at times to hold maybe 12 -15 people and yesterday you have a situation where in one of the cells, there was a person accused of murder was put into a cell with a number of others and bedlam broke loose.”

Today’s Independent reports that prisoners assaulted each other with chicken and chips while locked in adjacent cells,

Despite being brought to the court building at Merchant's Quay in the city centre in separate prison escorts, all three were placed in the same cell underneath the courtroom while they awaited their court appearances.

A fight in the cell ensued between the two men connected to the Dundon-McCarthy gang and the other individual. Authorities rushed to intervene and break up the feuding factions. In the courtroom, Judge Tom O'Donnell kept progressing with the day's legal proceedings despite the loud disturbances emanating from the cells.

One of the men, aged 23 from Moyross, was moved into an adjacent cell as gardai broke up the brawl. He suffered bruises to the face and body while his two opponents were left with a wounded eye and the other suffered a bust lip.