Wheelock Inquest told of bruise's, abrasions, and bloody clothes

international | crime and justice | news report Friday November 24, 2006 00:19 by tom foley - human rights watch freedomjig at hotmail dot com

Terence wheelocks documented photos of bruising and bloody clothes.

The dublin city coroners court heard at the inquest in to terence wheelocks death. That there was thirty five photos taken on the day after terence wheelock (20) detention at store st garda station.
They were taken at the mater hospital on the 3/6/05 and showed extensive bruising, cuts and larceratons on the young mans body consistent with time of arrest.
It also heard from the the states science forensic expert that blood had been found on mr wheelocks clothes ie tracksuit top ,bottoms and and shorts on the deceased.
There was a witness Mr simon doherty of summerhill stated that he witnessed terence wheelock being assaulted by gardai on arrest

The inquest in to the death of terence wheelock (20) came to a dramatic halt yesterday.
After the coroner brian farrel heard that there was thirty five photographs catergorising extensive cuts and bruising on the young man body.
These photos were taken as a mater of routine after wheelock was admitted after sustaining injuries while being detained at store st garda station on the 2/6/05 on suspicion of car theft along with three others. He died three months later on the 16/09/05 after failing to regain conciousness.

In dramatic scenes the court heard from Dr marie cassidy that she examined terence wheelock body at the matear hospital two months after his admittance although she was not aware of this she stated.
When asked by barrister Mr sean gillane council for the wheelock family if there was any bruising on the body of mr wheelock she stated that there was not, except for a small wound on the back of his brain possibly in her opinion at least a" couple of months old" when she was confronted with the photos catergorising extensive bruising she said she had not been aware of this, when it was put to her that in fact these photos were available to her and were indeed listed in her personal notes, which were read out to her, she stated that this must of been an "oversight" on her part, and accepted that when she examined the body sufficent time had passed for the body to heal itself of injuries.

The court went in to legal argument as wheather the photos should be shown to the jury as the state wanted sufficent time to examine these themselves. marie cassidy stated that evidence relating to wheelock forwarded to her had been limited.

Council for the wheelock family then called the states lab forensic expert who said in evidence that although he found blood on terence wheelocks clothes ie top , bottoms and underwere he did not test this blood to ascertain wheather the blood indeed was mr wheelocks.
Asked why he did not do so as this was a potential crime and that all avenues should be examined he stated that he was instructed only to examined the ligature,
when asked by whom these instructions came from he stated that garda oliver hanley asked him to examine the ligature only.
superintendent hanley was appionted by the garda commisioner to investigate the circumstances sourrounding terence wheelocks death.

The court heard from a witness and neighbour of mr wheelock Smon Doherty of sean o'casey ave summerhill, who was arrested along side wheelock on suspicion of car theft,
That he witnessed the deceased being assaulted by gardai upon arrest "they whacked terence head off the side of the van and twisted his broken arm behind his back" he went on to claim the"terence didn't rob the car. i did terence had nothing to do with it"
when they got to the station they were put in cells alongside each other. The witness stated that he heard scuffles and commotion coming from wheelocks cell and they were slagging terence text messages to his girlfriend he then said he fell asleep.the court heard the night befor he had taken sleeping pills. He was woken by two detectives who took his lace from his tracksuit bottoms and left the cell he was then released a short time later and saw gardai sealing of the cell with crimescene tape.
The coroners was told in two consecetive days from garda witness, nine in total that terence was in good form when detained and that there was banter between the prisoner and gardai, although at times there version of events differed greatly from each other and from custody records, some gardai put gardai in the vicinity of wheelocks cell these gardai denied being in the station at all, this was put down to bad recollection and the time thats has elapsed since then. All the gardai deny that the deceased was assaulted in any way and at all time he was treated with respect.
They also gave in sworn evidence that the noticed no bruise's or cuts after strip searching the prisoner nor did they notice any blood on the deceased.
Te coroner brain farrel stated that the evidence that has come to light should of been available to him he instructed Dr marie cassidy to go back and review the evidence in light of the new photograps and adjourned the inquest to the 15 of dec next month.
The wheelock family are calling for a full independent inquiry in to the death of mr wheelock and have no faith in the internal garda investigation they have always maintained that terence was severly assaulted in store st garda station.
In their opinion they feel only an independent inquiry cas establish the truth in the circumstance sorrounding terence wheelocks death.