Metro Éireann has learned that the family of a Nigerian man who died in prison while serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife plans to sue the State over his death.
Goodwill Udechukwu died recently at a Dublin hospital following a battle with cancer that was complicated by Aids-related illness, according to reports.
He had been serving a life sentence for the 2003 murder of wife Natasha Gray in Phibsborough, north Dublin.
This newspaper understands from some members of the Nigerian community in Dublin that the family has written to Government through the Irish Embassy in Nigeria to express their upset on his death, alleging there was foul play involved.
It is believed that the family is being assisted by human rights organisations, and has also demanded the repatriation of Udechukwu’s body, currently with an undertaker since his death a few weeks ago.
Just before murdering his wife, Udechukwu had been released from prison after receiving a suspended sentence for assaulting a garda.
He subsequently fled to Britain, where he was arrested for shoplifting and was extradited to Ireland on murder charges.
In July 2006, Udechukwu was found guilty of murdering his wife by a jury at the Central Criminal Court. He claimed he had been found guilty because he was from Africa and he was black.
Udechukwu was regarded as one of the country’s most violent prisoners and often got into fights. On the first day of his life sentence in Mountjoy Prison, he was beaten and stabbed in the back and in the eye by a gang of inmates in the prison’s D wing.
The Nigerian had spent the two months before his death in April in a critical condition at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.
He was in a coma for his final weeks, and his death is believed to have been mostly attributable to cancer that was exacerbated by Aids-related illness.
Metro Éireann contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment regarding the letter from Udechukwu's family, but was referred to the Department of Justice, who in turn stated that it was a matter for the Irish Prison Service.
However, a spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said it does not comment on prisoners in its keep. “We definitely do not comment on the medical records of prisoners dead or alive,” the spokesperson said.
The Irish Prison Service later added in a statement: “In relation to the allegations regarding the prisoner's death, the death of any prisoner in the custody of the Irish Prison Service is subject to an independent investigation by the Inspector of Prisons.”
