{"id":612098,"date":"2026-09-02T09:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612098\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:30:09","slug":"man-who-took-own-life-on-hospital-grounds-had-attempted-suicide-twice-in-garda-custody-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612098\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who took own life on hospital grounds had attempted suicide twice in Garda custody \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 25-year-old man whose body was discovered on the grounds of a Dublin<\/a> hospital had left an emergency department of his \u201cown free will\u201d after making two suicide attempts while in Garda custody hours earlier, an inquest has heard.<\/p>\n

Se\u00e1n O\u2019Neill\u2019s body was found on the grounds of Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, more than 24 hours after he left the emergency department, shortly after 7am on March 8th, 2017.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> investigating his disappearance said they were informed he had been voluntarily admitted and he had left of his own free will. They subsequently discovered his remains about a \u201cfive-minute walk\u201d away from the emergency department.<\/p>\n

Dublin District Coroner\u2019s Court heard on Tuesday that CCTV footage showed a doctor and a security staff member briefly following O\u2019Neill, though he kept walking. His body was found a short distance from where he was last seen on camera.<\/p>\n

His partner, Sophie Reed, recalled receiving a phone call from O\u2019Neill shortly before 7am. She said he told her \u201cthis was it\u201d and \u201cgoodbye\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill used a hospital phone to make the call, which Reed rang back within \u201cminutes\u201d and was told by a nurse he had left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assumed, because he was in the hospital, that he was safe,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

Reed said her partner had been in court in Blanchardstown on March 7th and told her he was facing a \u201csubstantial\u201d custodial sentence.<\/p>\n

She said he returned to their home drunk in Mornington, Co Meath<\/a>, after midnight on March 8th, and that he had also taken cocaine.<\/p>\n

She told the inquest her partner rang garda\u00ed and told them he was \u201cgoing to do something stupid\u201d. She too rang garda\u00ed after he became violent, she said.<\/p>\n

Reed maintained she heard her partner telling one of the attending officers that his family would be \u201cbetter off\u201d without him, adding that she told the other garda he had suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n

However, both garda\u00ed \u2013 David Campbell and James Haughey \u2013 denied this during the inquest hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Asked by the family\u2019s barrister, Eva Gloster, whether he considered invoking provisions under the Mental Health Act, namely assessment for involuntary admission, Campbell said: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He maintained O\u2019Neill never mentioned suicidal ideation, nor did he show \u201cany indication of self-harm whatsoever\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill was subsequently arrested on public order grounds and held in a cell at Ashbourne Garda station.<\/p>\n

Garda Jeffrey Moroney, the officer in charge that night, told the coroner he had left the Garda college in Templemore three months prior. Moroney said he was also manning the station\u2019s phone line in the early hours of that morning.<\/p>\n

He said he checked on O\u2019Neill, who was the sole prisoner in the station that night and was intoxicated, every 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

However, about 20 minutes elapsed between checks at one point due to a call, and he returned to find O\u2019Neill attempting suicide shortly after 4am. An ambulance was called and during the wait, O\u2019Neill attempted suicide again while Moroney was standing at the cell door.<\/p>\n

He told the coroner the 25-year-old was released from custody once paramedics arrived. He said garda\u00ed were entitled to keep an intoxicated prisoner detained for up to six hours or until \u201cbetter care is found for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by Gloster whether he considered the Mental Health Act powers, Moroney said a doctor who comes to the station to assess a prisoner will not involuntarily admit someone who has ingested alcohol or drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, they\u2019re given a referral letter and released,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Noting that O\u2019Neill was willing to go in the ambulance, Moroney told the court it was the \u201cbest course of action\u201d.<\/p>\n

The inquest hearing was due to continue on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 25-year-old man whose body was discovered on the grounds of a Dublin hospital had left an emergency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1346,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-612098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}