SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

The family of an 18-year-old who died after being released from Garda custody has demanded an independent inquiry.
John Maloney Jr, from Crumlin in Dublin, was arrested in May 2003 but was found unconscious shortly after being released. He died 11 days later in hospital.
His 48-year-old father, Johnny Maloney, said yesterday that those in the family wanted an independent inquiry because they could not believe that the teenager had died as a result of taking drugs or alcohol.
“If he was like that, he couldn’t have walked out of the police station,” the father said.
He said the family had been subjected to a campaign of Garda harassment for highlighting the mysterious aspects of the young man’s death.
A parking ticket was placed on the family car when relatives went to visit his grave on Christmas Day in 2003. The family home has been raided for illegal fireworks.
“It’s been very rough for the family over the last two years. You’re still fighting your case and there’s no time for grieving,” said Mr Maloney.
The family says several key questions relating to the teenager’s death remain unanswered.
John Maloney Jr was in a car with a friend in Rathfarnam at around 8am on Sunday, May 4, 2003 when they were arrested for a drugs search.
His friend was released from his cell at 9.35am without charge and was told John Maloney was being held over because of an outstanding warrant for driving without insurance.
At an inquest in Tallaght District Court last year, the sergeant on duty said John Maloney had been released shortly afterwards and walked out of the station “with a spring in his step”.
However, he was seen stumbling and falling at a nearby estate at around 9.50am by a passer-by. An ambulance was called.
He died in Tallaght Hospital on May 16 when the life-support machine was switched off.
The family tried to find out where the teenager had been that weekend. The relatives claim gardaí at Rathfarnam told them that he had not been in custody there.
Mr Maloney’s wife Sandra finally learned what had happened when a radio bulletin mentioned that a young man with a tattoo saying “Johnner” had been taken unconscious to hospital.
State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy carried out the postmortem examination on the body. She gave evidence at the inquest that a minute amount of cocaine had been found in John Maloney’s body. There was also a large quantity of alcohol.
She said the cause of death was possibly due to a reaction from cocaine. However, the jury returned an open verdict.
Mr Maloney said his son had probably hung around with people who smoked cannabis but had never been into drugs.
“He probably would have tried it [cocaine] for the first time but no way would it have killed him,” he said.
“He was a very jolly young fellow and he always had a lot of fun.”
Independent Socialist councillor Joan Collins said the Maloneys were an ordinary working-class family who had been torn apart by the teenager’s death.
“There’s just a lot of questions that haven’t been answered, and the family are really in limbo for the last two years. First of all, the trauma of losing their son and secondly not knowing exactly what went on,” she said.
The family’s relationship with the force has been extremely poor since. The teenager’s father broke his arm in a confrontation at a Garda station shortly after the death.
Both he and one of his sons became involved in a verbal altercation with the gardaí.
Mr Maloney pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and assault in court but the charges were dropped against his son. The father was bound over to keep the peace for a year.
He is now co-operating with the family of Terence Wheelock, who died in September, three months after being found unconscious in a cell in Dublin’s Store Street Garda station.
Both families are collecting signatures for a petition calling for independent inquiries into the two deaths.