Jail broke rule over killer’s detention in isolation
CONVICTED murderer Warren Dumbrell, who is serving a life sentence with his brother Jeffrey for the brutal stabbing of a father of six, has been granted a High Court declaration that his detention conditions have on occasion been breached.
Dumbrell (44), who was described in a High Court hearing as a violent prisoner with a poor disciplinary record, has for a number of years been detained away from the mainstream prison population.
For Dumbrell, formerly of Emmet Place, Inchicore, Dublin, the declaration by Ms Justice Miriam O’Regan will have little effect on his detention regime apart from being kept informed more often and in more detail as to the reasons behind his continued segregation.
The Dumbrells were found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of the murder of
33-year-old Christopher Cawley who they chased in October
2006, trapped in a stairwell at Tyrone Place Flats, Inchicore, and repeatedly stabbed.
Charges
During Warren Dumbrell’s High Court challenge against his detention conditions, it was revealed he had accumulated 51 discipline charges behind bars.
Judge O’Regan noted in a reserved judgment that, although there was considerable controversy between the parties as to the circumstances of Dumbrell’s incarceration, it did appear that for a long number of years he had been detained away from the mainstream prison population. The prison authorities had argued that this had arisen because of his behaviour which had deteriorated since 2015 and he had become more intimidating.
Judge O’Regan granted Dumbrell a declaration that the prison had on occasion breached Rule 62 of the Prison Rules which, among other things, directed that a prison governor shall conduct a review not less than once in seven days to determine whether a direction limiting a prisoner’s activities might be revoked and inform the prisoner of the outcome of such reviews.