Dublin People - Ex-prisoner reveals difficulty after attack

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Ex-prisoner reveals difficulty after attack

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

A former prisoner, who recently lost a High Court action for damages against the governor of Wheatfield Prison after he sustained serious injuries in a scalding attack, has revealed how he is struggling to get over his experiences.
Gary Breen (31), originally from Sallynoggin, took his case to court after another inmate threw a bucket of boiling water over him while he was jailed in Wheatfield.
Mr Breen suffered injuries to his back and upper body and was hospitalised for a month. He had to receive a number of skin grafts after the incident in 1998 when he was 20 years of age.
However, a High Court judge did not accept Mr Breen’s claims and dismissed the case.
Mr Breen first entered the prison system when he was just 16. He spent most of the next seven years in and out of Wheatfield Prison.
Speaking to Southside People, he said he began to become depressed immediately after the scalding incident and he has been on anti psychotic medication ever since.
“I was on a lot of medication for depression after the incident,” he revealed.

“I was paranoid all the time,” he added. “I kept to myself.
“I went to see the doctor when I got out and they sent me to a psychiatric centre.”
Mr Breen has not been back to prison since he was released from Wheatfield in 2000.
He has since married but admitted that his mental state has deteriorated to the extent that he has been forced to avail of a disability allowance and is not currently working.
“I still get depressed and I was only back with my doctor there recently and he put me back on medication again,” he stated. “That is something I have to live with.
“I am still married. I am not working anymore. I had to go on disability because I was getting paranoid and losing the head with people,” he admitted.

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