Cork woman who alleged her rights were breached in Limerick Prison has case thrown out
Statute Justice Siobhan Phelan Against Dismissed Prison Barred Limerick The Proceedings Ruled Should Are Be And Ms
A Cork woman who sought to sue over an alleged breach of her rights because of the practice of slopping out in Limerick Prison when she was an inmate there over twenty years ago has had her case dismissed by the High Court.
Ms Justice Siobhan Phelan ruled the proceedings, which were initiated seven years ago, and some 13 years after the woman was released from the Limerick Women’s Prison, are statute-barred and should be dismissed.
The judge also on the application of Frederick Gilligan BL with Remy Farrell SC for the State parties awarded costs against the woman, June Moore, Killala Gardens, Knocknaheeny, Cork City.
Ms Justice Phelan said it was appropriate in the proper administration of justice to determine as a preliminary issue whether the proceedings as currently constituted were statute-barred. She said she was satisfied that this was a pure question of law.
Ms Moore had been incarcerated at Limerick Prison for a period of about 13 months between February 2002 and March 2004. She was granted full release on March 25, 2004.
In her proceedings against the Governor of Limerick Prison, the Irish Prison Service, the Minister for Justice, Ireland, and the Attorney General, she sought a declaration that the conditions and circumstances of her detention at Limerick Prison during the period of 2002 to 2004 amounted to an alleged breach of her rights under the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
She also sought a declaration that the practice of slopping out and using a chamber pot in the context of shared cell occupancy amounted to an alleged breach of her rights to dignity and respect for her private life as guaranteed in the Irish Constitution and under the European Convention on Human Rights. Ms Moore also sought damages.
She claimed she shared a cell that was only intended for one person and there was a mattress on the floor and two bunk beds in an allegedly extremely limited space.
She further claimed she had to go to the toilet in a pot on the floor in the cell in front of her other inmates and contended she found this embarrassing, humiliating, and degrading.
She contended she and her other inmates were required to empty the pot or slop out once they were released from the cell in the mornings.
She alleged she had been confined to a dirty, cramped, and shared cell for one person but shared with another inmate for about 12 hours a day. She further claimed she was forced to live with the constant nausea from the alleged terrible smells in the cell.
The defendants said the allegations made by Ms Moore regarding the sanitary conditions in Limerick Women’s Prison were denied, but it did say at that time the inmate was provided with a chamber pot for toileting while in her cell. It was denied there was any danger to the health of Ms Moore and other prisoners from the temperature or air quality and its circulation.