An acutely mentally ill prisoner who died in Cloverhill Prison while being restrained by a team of prison officers had a spit hood placed over his head despite visible mucus and blood coming from his mouth and nose.
No medical staff were called when the blood and mucus was seen on the face of Ivan Rosney, who suffered from schizophrenia and was in prison after breaching a barring order.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons has expressed “deep reservations about the manner in which [Rosney] was restrained and about the extent of the external and internal injuries to his body revealed at postmortem”. The results of the postmortem examination performed on Rosney’s remains are redacted in the report.
The prison officers who carried him up a flight of stairs, around the time he lost consciousness, were not recorded on CCTV on all sections of the staircase. This was due to a blind spot in the camera system. Only the lower section of the staircase was covered by the cameras.
RM Block
Rosney (37), a father of four from Ferbane, Co Offaly, died on September 28th, 2020, after becoming unwell after being restrained by several prison officers at Cloverhill Prison. He had become unco-operative and was alleged to have spat at officers while being taken to a part of the jail to appear before a judge via video link.
He had been committed to prison a few days earlier for breaching a barring order after becoming physically aggressive with his father. A preliminary hearing of an inquest in 2023 into Rosney’s death was told, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed no prosecution on foot of a Garda investigation, including of any prison officers.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons investigated Rosney’s death and has now issued its report, saying the deceased “appeared to wriggle” as he was being carried towards the staircase. One of his shoes fell off as the prison officers carrying him began ascending the stairs to the D2 landing.
The party carrying him arrived on the landing less than three minutes after entering the stairwell. Rosney “appeared motionless and lifeless”. He also seemed to have soiled his tracksuit at the front. The report notes “only at this point did prison officers appear ... to become concerned” for him and call for medical support.
The investigation report also points to what it suspects were shortcomings in the way Rosney was restrained and carried in the prone position on the day.
“It appears that some prison officers may not have complied fully with correct Irish Prison Service control and restraint procedures, including by failing to seek healthcare advice when (Rosney) showed initial signs of distress such as blood and mucus flow from his nose and mouth,” it said.
It added that the prison service control and restraint manual sets out the dangers of carrying some prisoners in the prone positions, “expressly including the dangers of positional asphyxia”, especially those on “sedative drugs that reduce oxygen intake” and who are obese. It also notes the deceased, who is not named in the report, “was prescribed Olanzapine and had an increased body mass index (BMI) of 40.2″.
Olanzapine is an antipsychotic medication and is a sedative. Rosney’s BMI meant he was class 3 obese, which is severe or morbid obesity.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons recommended the prison service review its control and restraint training programme, especially around “the risks of positional asphyxia and excited delirium associated with the use of control and restraint”. It added that the expansion of the CCTV systems in jails should be accelerated.
In a statement on Friday, the Irish Prison Officer, which did not name Rosney, extended its sympathies to his family. It added it has “a robust, internal review mechanism which assesses the circumstances of a death in custody, highlights accountability and actions taken in relation to the incident, and outlines lessons learned”.
