Tales from Talbot Towers

These are the pictures of Terence Wheelock, who we are told left Store Street garda station without any physical injuries, except some bruising on his left arm and a ligature wound to his neck.

The photos speak for themselves and it is not hard to understand why his family believe he was the victim of an assault while in garda custody.

It is very hard to believe that anybody who examined Terence Wheelock prior to him being taken to his cell would not have made note of some of these injuries: to his back, his legs, and his hands.

So the question still remains – when did they happen and what caused them?

“Some media reports refer to extensive bruising on Terence’s body,” read the garda statement.

“The gardai see no reason for this nor were they noticed by the gardai or Dublin Fire Brigade personnel who attended the scene.”

When Terence Wheelock was taken into custody, gardai made a note of his injuries and any other distinguishing marks.

The garda who filled out the custody form said he had a birthmark as well as bruising on his left arm.

He was later strip-searched but no note was taken of extensive bruising and cuts on his legs, cuts to his hands, and a mysterious cut on his back as well as bruises on his lower back.

This is the first of a series of pictures I plan to publish here of these injuries

These injuries remain unexplained and according to garda accounts did not even exist when he left their custody.

Terence Wheelock was taken by ambulance from Store Street garda station in a coma in June 2005 and never woke again. He died three months later in the Mater Hospital.

The “full” report of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which was published earlier this week, is available here

Although it is important to note that the publicly available report differs substantially from the one that has been given to the Garda Commissioner and also to the Wheelock family.

More of that later in the week and also I will post the other pictures that were released by the Wheelock family to me.

A WATCHDOG on political expenses – who resigned from his position in frustration at the slow rate of expense reform last year – has said there is an “entitlements culture” in the Irish public sector.

In a hard-hitting article for Accountancy Ireland magazine, Tom O’Higgins, who chaired a number of high-profile government audit committees, said there was genuine public anger over the expenses controversies.

O’Higgins wrote: “There is widespread anger about the abuses of expenses by management and board members in some state bodies and government departments – in- cluding those of ministers.

“The problem is that the so-called entitlements culture is deeply embedded throughout the Irish public sector. This cannot be permitted to continue.

“Who will have the courage to say stop and instigate a root-and-branch reform to the expenses regimes from county councils, state bodies, prison-visiting committees and the Oireachtas?

There must be far greater transparency and vigilance by management and greater scrutiny by audit committees of expense claims in all ­bodies.”

O’Higgins resigned as chairman of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Audit Committee last year.

The committee was the financial watchdog for the Oireachtas Commission, which at the time was chaired by ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue.

O’Higgins was concerned that reform of political expenses was not moving quickly enough and that unvouched expenses would not be abolished.

His fears proved well-founded and a recent reform of the expenses system ann­ounced by finance minister Brian Lenihan has left aspects of the old system in place.

O’Higgins said that if advice from an audit committee is not welcome, then the chairman should resign. He wrote: “If there is not a supportive and positive attitude to the audit committee from the top, the committ­ee chairman should resign.

“He should never forget that he has a responsibility to be independent. He must have courage and integrity to accept that, at times, taking an independent stance may incur the wrath of executives and directors or even secretaries general.”

Read the O’Higgins article here in Accountancy Ireland.

It is on page 18 to 21 and should be required reading for Ireland’s political elite, the bankers and those who “serve” in semi-states and quangos.

Also, in a shameless plug for my new book Revenge, here’s an edited extract of one of the chapters, as appeared in the Sunday Tribune a fortnight ago.

The Death Warrant