Prison staff watched but failed to intervene as a mentally-ill Derry man blinded himself, a damning report has concluded.
The report by the Prisoner Ombudsman has said Sean Lynch inflicted ‘extreme and shocking’ self-harm over three days in June 2014.
The 23-year-old was held in Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim.
The report said on the final day, two prison officers watched as he injured himself on more than 20 occasions in an 'ordeal' that lasted for over an hour.
Prison officers ‘directly observed’ the inmate for more than a quarter of the time, the report added.
CCTV cameras showed Sean Lynch shouting and crying in pain and banging his cell door, but the officers did not try to stop him.
Sean Lynch used his fingers and thumbs to damage his eyes, and claimed to have used a piece of broken glass to injure his groin in the jail.
"It seems remarkable that several experienced Northern Ireland Prison Service officers, including a senior officer, all felt it was neither necessary nor appropriate to enter his cell to prevent Mr Lynch from self-harming further," said Prisoner Ombudsman Tom McGonigle.
"Their duty of care was trumped by security concerns that appear to have had little basis in reality."
The director general of the prison service, Sue McAllister, said it was the most extreme case of self-harming she had come across in 30 years working in prisons.
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