'Vulnerable' Kerry man died in Garda van on way to Limerick
The Shane Burke Late
A verdict of misadventure was returned by the jury into the death of a "vulnerable" man who died while in transit in a Garda van.
Shane Burke, from Tralee, Co Kerry, was found unresponsive in a holding cell in the rear of a Garda van, after an hour’s journey from Newcastle West to Henry Street Garda Station, Limerick City, via Rathkeale, on February 23, 2022.
Earlier that day, Mr Burke, 43, discharged himself out of Bruree House addiction treatment service, where he was participating in a 12-week programme for alcohol addiction.
Gardaí found him very intoxicated in Newcastle West with a more than half-empty bottle of whiskey and a suitcase containing his belongings.
Garda Philip Gleeson, Newcastle West Garda Station said Mr Burke was unsteady on his feet and he was “concerned” Mr Burke would “fall out in front of traffic or cause a road traffic accident”.
Garda Gleeson asked two colleagues to transport Mr Burke to Rathkeale Garda Station where Garda Gleeson suggested Mr Burke could “sleep it off” while waiting for a loved one to collect him.
Garda Gleeson said he arrested Mr Burke for being drunk and a danger to himself and others after he [Mr Burke] refused to get into the van “and he told me he hated the gardaí”.
Mr Burke would not willingly get into a prisoner holding cell located at the rear of the Garda van, and so gardaí pulled him into the van, and put him sitting on the ground of the cell with his knees up and facing out of the rear of the van.
Darren Horan, a civilian witness who came on the scene, said Mr Burke was “a bit agitated” while he was being arrested, but he said, “there was no scuffle” and gardaí “could not have been nicer to to him [Mr Burke]”.
Inspector Barry Manton gave evidence that he informed Gda Gleeson that Mr Burke should be brought to Henry Street Garda Station as it had more suitable custody facilities.
Garda Claire Moriarty drove the van and was temporarily accompanied on the journey by Garda Gavin Griffin.
Garda Griffin wrote in a deposition that he sat alongside Gda Moriarty in the front passenger seat. Garda Griffin said that at one stage during he journey, he “looked back” towards at the rear holding cell and called to Mr Burke who he said “responded verbally”.
Garda Moriarty gave evidence she stopped the van at Castlematrix, near Rathkeale, and told Gda Griffin she wanted to check on Mr Burke “because he had got quiet”.
Gda Moriarty said Gda Griffin told her he would check on Mr Burke.
Garda Moriarty said she stopped the van again at Croagh to allow Gda Griffin return to Newcastle West, and Gda Gleeson sat in to the front passenger seat.
At this juncture, Gda Moriarty said she got out of the van and “knocked” on the door of the holding cell and asked Mr Burke “if he was ok, an he responded verbally saying ‘yeah’ in a semi-shout”.
Garda Gleeson told the inquest that while he did not physically check on Mr Burke, nor could he remember looking back towards the cell, he could hear Mr Burke “making sounds” and “at no stage was I ever concerned for him”.
Garda Moriarty told the inquest no further checks were carried out after Croagh, however the inquest heard there was confusion over the times the final check and that it may have been 20 or 27 minutes before the van reached its destination.
Garda Moriarty said when they arrived at Henry Street station, she opened the cell and found Mr Burke unresponsive and without a pulse.
Garda Moriarty broke down in the witness box, describing how she “kept calling him [Mr Burke] but there was no response”.
Gardaí performed CPR at the scene and Mr Burke was transferred by ambulance to hospital where despite efforts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead.
Garda Moriarty and Gda Gleeson told the inquest that a CCTV monitor screen of the holding cell was situated in the front of the van, but they did not know how to use it nor had they received any training in using it.
Seats positioned between Garda Gleeson and Garda Moriarty, which the inquest heard would allow gardaí to more closely monitor a prisoner in the van’s holding cell, were not used during the journey.
Garda Moriarty agreed she had a “duty of care to check” prisoners in the van.
State pathologist Sally Anne Collis, who conducted an autopsy on Mr Burke’s body, determined he had suffered cardiac arrest and died due to acute alcohol and benzodiazepine intoxication.
Dr Collis said bruises found on Mr Burke’s body were not concerning and not linked in any way his death.
“None of these looked concerning, nor (did it look like) that he had been the victim of a violent assault, I couldn’t find anything overtly concerning,” Dr Collis added.
In a final submission, Elaine Houlihan, counsel for Jennifer Burke Stack, sister of Mr Burke, asked the jury to make a recommendation that any Garda traveling in custody vehicles, containing holding cells, should have to follow specific procedures in respect of carrying out welfare checks of prisoners on board, and that Gardaí should receive training in using CCTV monitors in Garda custody vehicles. Ms Houlihan asked:
In response, Dan O’Gorman, solicitor acting for the Garda witnesses, argued against Ms Houlihan’s call for additional Garda protocols.
“The gardaí are almost over-regulated, gardaí already have a common law duty of care which is ‘common sense’,” Mr O’Gorman said.
“To translate this case into a call for regulation or further training, is requesting a little bit too much from An Garda Siochana.”
Coroner John McNamara said inquests determine the cause and circumstances of a person’s death, they do not implicate or exonerate anyone nor do they determine any civil or criminal liability, and he said there was no suggestion that gardaí had not acted properly in this case.
Mr McNamara said Shane Burke was a “vulnerable” person and passed on his sympathies to his family, as did gardaí, and a representative from Gsoc.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Burke Stack said she was happy with the jury’s verdict but “disappointed” it did not act on her barrister’s submission.
“I was very appreciative of the jury’s decision but I was extremely unhappy that they did not garner from this inquest that it was made clear by the gardaí present that there are absolutely zero regulations in place, for anybody who gets into the back of a garda van and is locked in — that is literally a no-man’s land in terms of the law.”
Ms Burke Stack said she would always be left wondering that her brother might not have died had he been checked by gardaí during the final 20-27 minutes of the journey.
“That’s why I wanted the recommendations, hence my disappointment,” she said.