Man who spent ten years in isolation assaulted prison governor

A prison governor was attacked by a ’high risk’ prisoner who has been in isolation for ten years and who also admitted assaulting a chief prison officer during the incident.

Brendan Cummins (31) of Lios Dubh, Armagh Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, pleaded guilty to wilfully obstructing a peace officer and two counts of assault causing harm at Portlaoise Prison on February 16, 2026.

He appeared before a sitting of Portlaoise District Court via video link where Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby gave evidence of the incident.

Sgt Kirby explained that the assaults occurred during a “review meeting” with the high risk prisoner when the accused became aggressive, jumped up on a counter and kicked the governor in the chest.

Sgt Kirby said the chief officer then tried to restrain the accused and suffered bruising to his left upper arm. He said the governor suffered pain and discomfort to his left shoulder and bruising to his chest. He said the incident was captured on CCTV.

The accused was arrested and questioned and admitted the assaults under caution, said Sgt Kirby. He said pictures and a medical report were available to the court and the accused was serving a sentence until March 2030. He said the defendant has a number of previous convictions for assault.

Judge Andrew Gubbins noted the accused was in prison for assault causing harm and threatening to kill or cause serious harm.

Anne Doyle BL said her client’s plea of guilty was “of enormous value” to the State.

Sgt Kirby said he would give the man credit for his plea. “The gentleman does need high security if was to come here,” he remarked.

Ms Doyle asked the judge to read a psychological report which had been prepared on the man for a different court appearance.

“I am not asking the court to minimise the seriousness of the offending,” she said.

Ms Doyle said she was producing the report not as an excuse but in order to highlight his background. She said her client was born in Manchester and was “exposed to serious violence” in the home. She said his father died in tragic circumstances when he was nine years old.

Ms Doyle explained that her client suffers with “chronic anger, fear and a tendency to see other people’s behaviour as threatening.”

She said her client was diagnosed with ADHD and had boxed when he was younger which he found a positive influence. However, she said he began abusing alcohol and other substances and stopped boxing.

“This gentleman has been incarcerated on and off since he was 16 years old,” she remarked.

“He has been in isolated conditions while incarcerated for 10 years,” said Ms Doyle.

She asked Judge Andrew Gubbins to consider the position of the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to solitary confinement and its link with violent offending. She asked that some structured plan be put in place to help the accused rehabilitate.

“I would ask the court to consider giving him just a little bit of hope,” she said.

Judge Gubbins said that any sentence handed down would have to run consecutively with the sentence the accused was serving. He asked whether the man was receiving any treatment for his difficulties and the man confirmed he was not.

Judge Gubbins noted the 2022 psychological report had indicated that “he was incarcerated in the national violence reduction unit of the Midlands Prison. That is a very specialist unit,” he said. He noted therapeutic care may not have been available to the man because of where he was being held in the jail.

Ms Doyle said her client was looking to return to the national violence reduction unit and he was on the waiting list.

Judge Gubbins acknowledged that the man "undoubtedly had an extremely difficult life and an extremely difficult upbringing” but said he couldn’t ignore his history of offending.

“You have 34 previous convictions and they all seem to be for assault. It seems that violence for you comes very easily and it seems your first port of call to deal with situations,” he remarked.

Judge Gubbins expressed the court’s hope that the man might engage in therapy while in prison.

He described as “extremely aggravating” the fact that the accused had attacked members of the prison service during a review meeting. He said he had looked at pictures of the injuries and there were serious injuries inflicted on the victims. He also noted the psychological impact of the attack which he said was “significant” in relation to one of the victims in particular. He said one of the victims suffers from nightmares, flashbacks and is now more wary around prisoners.

Judge Gubbins sentenced the man to ten months in prison in relation to each of the assaults and said the sentences were to run concurrently and consecutively to the sentence already being served by the prisoner. He said the obstruction charge was taken into consideration.

Ms Doyle asked that he fix recognisance in case of appeal. Judge Gubbins fixed recognisance and granted legal aid, certifying for counsel.