Jailed 'neighbour from hell' who waged terror on estate found dead in Irish prison cell

A notorious criminal who waged terror on a Buncrana housing estate was found dead in his prison cell on Christmas Day.

Carl Ryan, originally from Ballyfermot in Dublin, was once dubbed a ‘neighbour from hell’ after causing havoc at the Burwood estate over several years.

Ryan was found dead in his cell at Wheatfield Prison on Christmas Day. Ryan was said to have been in poor health lately and sources suggest that his death was of natural causes.

A death notice for Ryan described his passing as occurring ‘unexpectedly’.

In 2023, Ryan was jailed for threatening to burn his neighbours’ children and ‘nail them to the floorboards’.

Ryan had 44 previous convictions when he was sentenced to 14 months in prison by Judge Éiteáin Cunningham at Letterkenny District Court.

Ryan was charged with a series of vicious threats in Buncrana over a 13-month period in 2019 and 2020. 

On August 15, 2020, John McLaughlin and his son Pauric observed Ryan in the Burwood estate and he began verbally abusing them. Ryan told Mr McLaughlin that he would kill him and slash his tyres. After telling Mr McLaughlin that he would ‘never sleep comfortably in your bed again’, he threatened to burn his children, knee cap them and nail them to the floorboards. 

Ryan also threatened to burn Mr McLaughlin’s house down.

This was one of several incidents outlined to the court, including that he shouted abuse at Gardai on one occasion and attempting to gain entry to a property, putting a woman, with a 12-month-old baby, in fear.

On August 13, 2020, John McLaughlin observed Ryan videoing a house at Burwood, Buncrana. Mr McLaughlin became concerned and began to record Ryan, who told the man that he would burn his house down. Ryan told Mr McLaughlin: “You’ll be gone out of here before I will.

Mr Rory O’Brien, solicitor for Ryan, said there was an ‘element of tit-for-tat’ in some but not all of the incidents. “In some cases, he reacted incorrectly and wrongly,” Mr O’Brien said, adding that his client’s health deteriorated and that he had to have a leg amputated.

In May 2022, Ryan was given a five-and-a-half year sentence when he appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court.

Ryan was found guilty of assaulting 67-year-old neighbour Peter Deeney following a two-day trial. He then admitted demanding money with menaces from the landlord of the house he was renting telling him he wanted €1,000 to move out or he would burn down the house.

The court was played a twelve minute audio message of a telephone conversation between Ryan and the landlord.

Ryan was heard saying that he would leave if he was given €1,000 but if he didn’t receive the funds he would burn the house down and also threatened to torch the home of the landlord.

He said: “You're going to have no house. I'm going to burn it down. I'm going to burn this house and your house. I hope you have that on tape. I'm f***ing genuine.”

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service confirmed “that there was a death of a person in custody on Christmas Day.

The spokesperson, adding condolences to Ryan’s family and friends, said: “All deaths in custody are investigated by the Irish Prison Service, the Inspector of Prisons and An Garda Síochána, where circumstances warrant. The cause of death is determined by the Coroner’s Office.”