Magilligan drugs death prompts raft of recommendations

Richard Bernard Gilmore, aged 25, died in state custody some time between late Saturday, January 10, 2009, and the early hours of Sunday, January 11, after taking a lethal concoction of prescription and illegal drugs.

Mr Gilmore was abusing prescription painkillers at the time of his death and a fellow prisoner had collapsed after taking drugs on the same wing of the prison just hours before his body was discovered.

Prisoner Ombudsman, Pauline McCabe, has now made a raft of recommendations on the control of drugs in the jail in response.

A report published by the Ombudsman last week revealed how Mr Gilmore had smuggled a range of pharmaceutical and recreational drugs into the prison in a Kinder Egg charger concealed in his back passage.

A fellow prisoner told the investigation into his death that he had returned from home leave with "200 plus of loyalist blue tablets, 100 plus white Subutex tablets and about 2-3 ounces of cannabis."

This claim was backed up by a phone call to the Magilligan Security Department by another prisoner stating Mr Gilmore had brought "D10s/Roche 10s and Subutex" back.

The second prisoner claimed Mr Gilmore was put under pressure to bring drugs back into the jail and that reports that a bad batch had caused his death were wide of the mark.

"It was the amount Richard had taken," the prisoner had said. "Richard had been under pressure to bring drugs back into the prison and the drugs that he had taken were the ones he had brought into the prison from his recent home leave."

Whilst the Ombudsman's report found it was impossible to confirm this it also stated the prison service was well aware that prisoners who were granted temporary leave could be vulnerable to such pressure.

One prisoner also claimed Mr Gilmore was noticeably displaying the symptoms of drug use upon his return.

"From the time Richard came back off home leave he was off his head," the prisoner reported during interview. "He was slurring his words and wobbling all over the place when he was moving about the wing...Richard was asking drugs steady from when he came back and was handing them out of his mates also."

The investigation found there was a delay of 11 minutes before Mr Gilmore's cell was opened after he was discovered to be unresponsive during a routine cell body check; this, the report states, was contrary to Prison Service protocol in an emergency situation.

The reports also states: "The management of the supply and use of drugs presents a major challenge to prisons everywhere. The Governor at Magilligan Prison is committed to trying to keep Magilligan Prison drugs free."

Ms McCabe has called for a wide-ranging review of drug control in Magilligan.

Voluntary drug testing to cover all standard prisoners in Magilligan and the removal of drugs prisoners from the drugs free wing have already been implemented by the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS).

But NIPS says "finite staff resources and limited time to carry out drugs tests due to the pressures of managing an ever increasing prisoner population" make it difficulty to increase the frequency of urine samples.

Swab saliva testing - due to be implemented at the end of 2009 but not yet operative at the time of the report's compilation - promised to

make it easier to carry out increased tests and NIPS is working to implements this.

More thorough reportage of drug information, greater liaison with prisoners, the use of phone jammers and detectors, a review of security checks and visitor arrangements and the replacement of faulty and unsupported CCTV in the H Blocks was also recommended.

In light of Magilligan's Chief Medical Officer being abroad at the time of the incident and the police duty medical officer being called to the prison on January 11, 2009 - resulting in Mr Gilmore's death being officially recorded hours after he passed away - Ms McCabe wants the officer to in future notify the Emergency Control Room and indicate where requests should be directed

The possibility of using a Body Orifice Security Scanner (BOSS) chair already located in Maghaberry Prison is also to be assessed.