"Blood soaked through clothes from inside"

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Wednesday March 14, 2007 12:58

by Irish Times reader

Wheelock family continue to call for Public Inquiry

People may have missed this when it was publicised, since the protest coincided with (extensively reported) Shell to Sea protest in Mayo.

The Wheelock family's plight has been highlighted on this site, so readers will be interested in the report on the forensic testing of Terence Wheelock's clothes. Since the Irish Times is subscription I reproduce the article here in full.

Members of Terence Wheelock's family protesting outside the Department of Justice on February 16th.

Clothes worn by Wheelock soiled by blood, vomit

The clothes worn by Terence Wheelock, who died in 2005 after 2½ hours in Garda custody, were extensively stained with blood and vomit, a forensic report commissioned by his family's legal team has found. Kitty Holland reports.

The inquest into the death of Mr Wheelock (20) was adjourned in November to allow State Pathologist Marie Cassidy to view photographs of his body. It resumes at the end of March.

The family hope to hand the forensic reports, commissioned by their legal team, to the Minister for Justice at the Progressive Democrats conference in Wexford this weekend. They will also be presented at the resumption of the inquest.

No gardaí who arrested Mr Wheelock or who were at Store Street Garda station in June 2005, when he fell into a coma, mentioned blood or vomit on his clothes at the inquest. However, at its adjournment last year, Michael Norton, forensic scientist at Garda headquarters who examined Mr Wheelock's clothes, said there were bloodstains on some of the undergarments.

According to the independent forensic analysis of the clothes, commissioned by the Wheelock family legal team, these bloodstains could have been caused by injuries and trauma to the anal area.

His family are seeking an independent inquiry into his death.

Mr Wheelock is said to have been found unconscious in a cell at the Garda station on June 2nd, 2005. Gardaí have said in evidence he had attempted to hang himself with a cord from his tracksuit bottoms and that he was taken to the Mater hospital.

He remained in a coma there until his death three months later, on September 16th, 2005.

After almost a year of legal wrangling with the Garda Commissioner's office, the Wheelocks were granted access to his clothes in November.

Photographs taken in the Mater hospital by a hospital photographer of Mr Wheelock's body and seen by The Irish Times , show extensive bruising on his arms, legs and torso as well as cuts on his knuckles and single ligature mark around his neck.

The photographs of his clothes show clearly bloodstains on his boxer shorts and T-shirt. Dublin's deputy lord mayor Aodháin Ó Riordáin, who also saw the photographs yesterday, called them "particularly troubling".

A T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and boxer shorts were examined on behalf of the family at the Dublin Forensic Science laboratory by Lee John Fagan, a forensic scientist with Keith Borer consultants in Durham, England. An opinion on his findings was given by Dr Carl Gray, consultant forensic pathologist based in Leeds.

Mr Fagan, in his report dated December 8th, 2006, notes bloodstaining on the tracksuit bottoms, including a heavy soaked-in stain on the upper inside back of the trousers. The blood is said to have soaked through to the outside of the tracksuit bottoms.

Mr Wheelock's boxer shorts are found to have similar stains on the inside back. Mr Fagan is of the opinion that this blood is likely to have soaked through the shorts and tracksuit bottoms from the inside and while they were being worn. He notes vomit-staining down the front of the T-shirt as well as bloodstaining.

In his opinion on Mr Fagan's report, Dr Gray says that although vomiting may occur from an initial hanging attempt which would be nauseating, he notes that there was no double ligature mark on Mr Wheelock's neck to suggest repeated attempts at hanging and he says the most likely explanation is that the T-shirt was previously vomited upon.

He also says anal bleeding is not a usual feature of hanging cases. Though it could be explained by minor anal trauma or a cut caused by constipation, it could also have been caused by injury and trauma to the anal area.

A spokesman for the Garda said: "It is unwise for An Garda Síochána to discuss any aspect of this case pending the outcome of the coroner's inquest."

The Wheelock family's call for an independent inquiry is supported by local TDs Joe Costello (Labour) and Tony Gregory (Ind) as well as by local councillors Christy Burke (Sinn Féin) and Aodháin Ó Riordáin (Labour).