Grieving prisoner abused, assaulted by warders

The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association has condemned the treatment of republican prisoner, Paddy McDaid, at Maghaberry prison following his return from a visit to see his dying father.

Mr McDaid had been released for a brief few hours on compassionate grounds to visit his gravely ill father, who passed away shortly after.

The request for brief compassionate bail was opposed by a PSNI intervention. A lawyer for the British Crown argued: “Releasing the applicant overnight would create an unmanageable risk.”

However, the judge ruled that Mr McDaid could be temporarily let out of prison under conditions which prohibited any mobile phone use. He also insisted that his cousin, the former Sinn Féin Assembly member Raymond McCartney, acted as ‘chaperone’.

Within two hours of the tragic passing of his father, Mr McDaid was returned to Maghaberry where he was “forcibly stripped searched, sexually abused and assaulted by prison screws”, according to a statement by the IRPWA.

He was then placed in a “filthy” cell and denied his medication.

“Paddy will now be forced to spend the next two weeks in isolation in these appalling conditions away from his comrades,” they said.

“There is no reason for this other than the vindictiveness of the Maghaberry regime and their desire to further attack a grieving man.

“This is a clear violation of Paddy’s human rights and further evidence of the vindictive way in which the Maghaberry regime treat Republican Prisoners.”

Urgent Appeal