Woman says learning about son’s death via social media ‘absolutely devastating’

A woman has said it was “absolutely devastating” to learn through reports on social media that her son had died in prison.

Patricia Lee, whose son Keith died while in custody at Mountjoy Prison in April 2018, told Dublin District Coroner’s Court that “the whole world knew about it [his death] before we did”.

Mr Lee (42), who was facing charges in relation to the murder of his estranged wife Joanne Lee, died by suicide, his inquest heard on Thursday.

The body of Ms Lee, also known as Joanne Ball, was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in a wardrobe in a flat in Ranelagh in February 2018. Mr Lee had jumped from the third floor apartment window on Ranelagh Road and suffered serious injuries, including broken legs, and then self-harmed. He was charged in relation to her murder in March 2018.

Patricia Lee told the coroner that she and her daughter Norma were travelling home from a doctor’s appointment on the morning of April 12th, 2018 when her daughter received a message from a friend abroad who had “saw on social media that Keith had killed himself” and said she was “sorry to hear about your brother”.

Mr Lee’s family later clarified to the court that the news of his death was on mainstream media’s social media pages and television at around 10.15am while gardaí did not visit the family home to inform them until after 10.30am. The family said extracts from notes Mr Lee had left for them were printed by media outlets in the days following his death.

The inquest was told that Mr Lee was found in the wet room area of his prison cell shortly after 8am by prison officers. The last time he was seen alive by officers was at 4.30am in his cell. Officers said there had been checks in the intervening period but it appeared that he was asleep with his head covered.

Mr Lee had been staying in a wheelchair accessible prison cell and there was a blind spot through the officer’s observational peep hole which did not allow them to see his shower facilities, the court heard.

Alison Fynes BL, for the Lee family, said Mr Lee was under special protection and there should have been 48 checks by officers between 8pm and 8am under prison protocol, but only 24 occurred.

Paddy Moran, the current assistant governor of Mountjoy Prison, said that while he was not working in the prison at the time, he wholly condemned “anyone who might be involved in leaking information to media in any case”.

He said there had been shortcomings in the level of checks by prison officers and in terms of a blind spot through the observational flap, but that these had since been addressed. Mr Moran said prison officers were not allowed to have phones on them and had to go through security checks before starting their shifts. He said prisoners do get contraband phones and could have potentially sent messages about Mr Lee’s death.

Garda Inspector Ken Hoarne, who was detective sergeant at Mountjoy Garda station in 2018, acknowledged there had been breaches in protocol regarding information reaching the public domain before Mr Lee’s relatives were informed about his death. However, he said there had been no Garda investigation into those breaches as there was no formal complaint made by the family.

The inquest was also told that during a medical assessment in March 2018, Mr Lee had admitted to having polysubstance misuse history since his early teens but denied having mental health problems.

A verdict of death by suicide was confirmed by a seven-person jury.

Speaking afterwards, Patricia Lee said her family were “glad that after 6½ years we can grieve properly and have closure”.