Prison staff 'not equipped to deal with' inmate blinding

Sean Lynch, pictured with his father Damien, inflicted self-harm over a three-day period

Maghaberry prison officers were not equipped to deal with a mentally ill inmate who blinded himself, the justice minister has told the assembly.

Claire Sugden also accepted that the Prisoner Ombudsman report into Sean Lynch's treatment was "damning".

The minister said "severe lessons" had been learnt from the case.

The ombudsman said staff watched, but failed to intervene, as Sean Lynch gouged his own eyes out in an "extreme and shocking" self-harm episode.

Mr Lynch inflicted the self-harm over a three-day period.

'Exceptional mental health case'

The report said on the final day, two prison officers watched as the 23-year-old injured himself on more than 20 occasions in an "ordeal" that lasted for more than an hour.

Prison officers "directly observed" the inmate for more than a quarter of the time, the report added.

CCTV cameras showed Sean Lynch shouting and crying in pain and banging his cell door, but the officers did not try to stop him.

"Their duty of care was trumped by security concerns that appear to have had little basis in reality," said Prisoner Ombudsman Tom McGonigle.

Claire Sugden said 'severe lessons' had been learnt from the case

Speaking on Tuesday, Ms Sugden said: "This was an exceptional, exceptional, mental health case and to be honest our officers were not equipped to deal with that exceptional case.

"But moving forward into the future, we need to look at how we can better equip officers to deal with these sorts of cases."

She added: "It's been said to me that a quarter of my prisoners have mental health issues and that's something we need to look at.

"We need to look at the prison estate - is it fit for purpose - how we're actually interacting with prisoners on a day to day basis."

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie asked whether a staff level of 31 overnight officers supervising 870 Maghaberry inmates - including the periodic monitoring of up to 25 "at-risk" prisoners - was inappropriate as well as inadequate.

Ms Sugden said she recognised there were challenges facing the prison service.

"Certainly moving forward I'm keen to look at those challenges and see first and foremost how we can better support our prison officers," she said.