“It took six officers to restrain them when they entered the unit,” a source said.
The pair, Evan O’Keefe from Limerick and a second inmate who cannot be named as he is before the courts for serious offences, smashed up their cells in the NVRU on July 23rd.
Efforts were made by staff to calm the pair but, after these efforts failed, a decision was taken to send in a team of officers in control and restraint gear.
“It took six officers to restrain them when they entered the unit,” a source said.
“They were both wild and had to be forcibly restrained before they could be removed.”
O’Keefe from Shanabooley Rd, Ballynanty, Limerick is serving a six-year sentence, handed down in March 2021, for repeatedly striking another man with a hammer during a home invasion the previous year.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to multiple charges relating to the offence which occurred in the Mulgrave Street area of the city on March 7, 2020.
During his sentencing hearing, Garda Enda Clifford said the alarm was raised at around 4am when the victim was woken by an intruder in his bedroom.
The Midlands Prison in Portlaoise
News in 90 Seconds – Aug 9th
After he challenged the burglar, a second male entered the room and the occupant was punched and struck “at least four times” with a hammer.
The homeowner sustained six lacerations to his scalp and head and required ten staples.
In a victim impact statement, the now 38-year-old said he had never seen such “savagery, brutality, and inhumanity from another human being” as he did on the night and that he initially feared he had sustained a brain injury.
Garda Clifford said after fleeing the house the intruders broke into another home a short distance away.
Sometime later on the same day the defendant threatened and robbed a mobile phone from a young man who was eating his lunch at a fast-food restaurant in the city centre.
The court heard Mr O’Keefe was on bail at the time as he had been charged with robbing a wallet from a 15-year-old boy at Davis Street in the city centre on September 24, 2019.
Barrister Yvonne Quinn said her client made “full, frank and valuable” admissions and that he has expressed his remorse.
She said he had a “very significant addiction” and that he was spending around €200 a day on drugs around the time of the offences.
Ms Quinn said the defendant is now drug free and that he has developed an insight into his drug use and behaviour.
Imposing sentence, Judge Tom O’Donnell said what happened was extremely serious and he said it was an aggravating factor that some of the offences occurred while Mr O’Keefe was on bail.
He added that the use of a weapon was of serious concern.
He imposed a number of consecutive prison sentences totalling six years’ imprisonment.
The second inmate involved in the melee in the NVRU has long been regarded as one of the country’s most volatile inmates.
He has clocked up more than 106 convictions, including 30 for assault, firearms and robbery offences.
He has also had more than 250 breaches of prison discipline recorded against him.
Following a period of freedom, he was remanded back in custody in February of this year on a charge of knife possession following an alleged spate of shop raids and a stand-off with gardai.
He was arrested following an investigation into a crime spree allegedly targeting shops and a pharmacy in north Dublin.
Both prisoners have been subjected to P19 disciplinary proceedings and the loss of privileges in connection with the disturbances on July 23rd.