how to do a screen shot A Disgraced ex-Garda jailed last month for drug dealing has been left battered in prison despite being on a protection wing.
Rogue cop Stephen Cooper fell victim to a well-prepared jail attack after crossing paths with one the country’s most notorious inmates, Warren Dumbrell.
The Tallaght man, who once worked as a garda at Sundrive Road in Dublin, was hit with a makeshift weapon, according to Sunday World sources.
His attacker is thought to have stuffed socks with batteries or a pool ball which were then swung at his head.
The 29-year-old needed 20 stitches after the short but vicious attack on the C1 landing at the Midlands Prison, the source added.
Cooper was jailed last month for three years after pleading guilty to dealing cocaine, attempting to frame someone for car theft and insurance fraud. He ended up being detained on the same landing where dangerous prisoners and those thought to be under threat are kept.
However, it is believed Dumbrell and Tipperary man Gerard Browne took offence to Cooper after a run-in over the use of the jail’s official phones.
Normally Cooper’s cell is separated from Dumbrell’s by two sets of gates and inmates on the landing don’t have access to each other. Cooper’s assailant took his chance when the gates were temporarily opened to allow access to the gym.
Dumbrell is a regular gym partner of Browne’s, who was jailed in 2012 for holding pharmacy staff hostage during a robbery. Dumbrell also has a history of hostage taking from when he was a ring-leader of the infamous Mountjoy siege in 1997 in which four prison staff were held hostage.
Such was Dumbrell’s notoriety that for years he was kept on a special ‘barrier’ regime by prison officers who always wore riot gear when escorting him. The harsh regime continued until it was successfully challenged in the courts.
Dumbrell, originally from Inchicore, was later released, killed a man and is now back serving life. He is an avid gym user and even gets to spar with training partners, according to Sunday World sources.
Prison newbie Cooper would have had little chance to defend himself against such hardened jail birds. He has since been transferred to Cloverhill where he is on 24-hour protection as he recovers from the brutal assault, sources say.
Cooper was a member of the force when he allowed a friend to take the blame after gardai seized LSD during a search at the Electric Picnic music festival in 2009.
Cooper pleaded guilty to attempting to get a woman to make a false statement implicating a man in the theft of a car and making a false report to claim insurance for the canopy of his jeep which blew off. He also admitted possession of cocaine worth €700 for sale or supply at Ormond Quay on January 31, 2011.
Before passing sentence, Judge Mary Ellen Ring described Cooper’s actions as a fundamental breach of the role of the gardaí and said that Cooper threatened a completely innocent member of the public into making false claims.
“This does a serious disservice to the public and to Mr Cooper’s then colleagues who seek to conduct themselves within the letter of the law,” the judge commented.
After sentence was imposed, Cooper’s defence counsel asked that he be allowed to serve his time in the pre-release section of jail, as has been the case with previous gardaí serving prison terms.
Judge Ring replied that those were cases where there was an early guilty plea, which was not the case with Cooper.
Evidence was heard how Cooper had shown remorse and worked hard as a volunteer for charity as well as caring for his seriously ill wife.
It was added that that he had successfully overcome his addiction to cocaine which began when he was just 15.
