A Mayo man serving a life sentence for murdering his mother has been given a two and a half year sentence for throwing boiling water at a prison officer. The court heard Celyn Eadon (24 ) has sustained irreversible organic brain damage due to drug abuse in his teens. He was convicted last year of stabbing his mother to death in 2011 while in a drug induced psychosis. The attack on the prison officer, which was captured on CCTV, was one of a series of violent incidents which occurred around the time Eadon was moved from the Central Mental Hospital (CMH ) to Mountjoy following his murder conviction.
He had just been moved out of a padded cell that day and his medication altered the previous week. Eadon of Derrycrieve, Islandeady, Castlebar, Co. Mayo pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the prison officer causing him harm at Mountjoy Prison on April 15, 2014. Eadon has eight previous convictions including three for assault which have occurred in custody. The court heard it was not permissible to make any subsequent sentences consecutive to a life term. Judge Martin Nolan noted Eadon had no impulse control and was impulsively violent at the time. He said there had been no rational explanation for the attack. He imposed a two and a half year sentence to run fromyesterday (Thursday. )
Garda Maura Fitzgerald told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that the prison officer was on duty that night in the medical unit and was doing rounds with a nurse when they went to Eadon's cell and asked if he needed any medication. Eadon, who was alone in the cell, requested paracetamol. The door to the cell was unlocked and Eadon turned, picked up the kettle and threw the contents at the officer. He was hit on the right side of his face and shoulder by boiling water.The prison officer tried to close the cell door but it sprang back before he successfully closed it. He was treated by the nurse at the prison before going to hospital. He was out of work for five weeks.
Anne Rowland BL, defending, said Eadon's mother had been killed in March 2011 while he was in a drug induced psychosis after he had been up for four days taking drugs. She said he had spent 18 months in the CMH while in custody and had been on various medications during that time prior to his ultimate diagnosis of organic brain damage. Ms Rowland he said he was transferred from the CMH following his conviction for murder. She said that in the week prior to this attack his medication had been altered and he had just that day been transferred out of a padded cell. She said there had never been a satisfactory explanation for the attack and it had not been a grudge or revenge attack. Counsel said he was a “lonely figure” in the prison and was in a situation where he did not believe his mother was gone and could believe it was all a conspiracy. She said he was extremely remorseful about the assault and did not understand why he did it. Ms Rowland said he was receiving psychiatric care while in prison and was learning behaviours to deal with his impulses. He was taking anti-psychotic medication
