A Garda inquiry was under way last night into the death of a university student who fell into a coma and died while in Garda custody in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The dead man had initially been found by gardaí unconscious at his apartment on the campus of NUI Maynooth, Co Kildare, on Tuesday morning. He was arrested and questioned that night about a drugs find after spending the day in hospital.
The victim, 29-year-old Stephen Sheridan, originally from Phibsboro, Dublin, was rushed by ambulance to Blanchardstown hospital after he was found unconscious by gardaí in his Maynooth campus apartment.
A second man at the apartment, who is not a student at the college, was arrested by gardaí after a quantity of ecstasy tablets and cannabis was found at the campus residence.
He was taken to Naas Garda station on Tuesday morning but after a period of questioning was released. A file is now being prepared for the DPP.
Mr Sheridan was not well enough to speak to gardaí and spent all of Tuesday being treated in Blanchardstown hospital. He was apparently recovering but decided to discharge himself at about 7pm that night.
He immediately returned to his apartment in Maynooth. About three hours after arriving at the property he was arrested by gardaí. He too was taken to Naas Garda station where he was detained for questioning under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act in relation to the drugs find.
According to a Garda statement, Mr Sheridan was questioned about the drugs until midnight on Tuesday, at which point the interview was suspended by mutual consent. He was then placed in a cell for the night.
The Garda statement said Mr Sheridan was observed in the cell at regular intervals, in accordance with Garda Custody Regulations, into the early hours of yesterday.
Some time about 4.30am the member who checked on him became concerned that Mr Sheridan had become distressed.
When he was checked more closely he could not be roused.
A doctor and an ambulance were summoned to the station and efforts were made to revive him. Mr Sheridan was taken by ambulance to Naas General Hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 6am.
Gardaí said the exact cause of death would not be known until a postmortem was concluded.
A mature student, Mr Sheridan was in the second year of a two-year diploma course in community and youth work.
Vice-president of NUI Maynooth Jim Walsh said the dead man was a well known and popular student.
He said the college, particularly Mr Sheridan's classmates, had been deeply shocked by his death.
The Garda has now begun an internal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Mr Sheridan's death.
Supt Pádraig Rattigan, who is based in Mullingar in the Longford-Westmeath division, has been asked by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to lead the internal investigation.
He will interview all of the gardaí who came into contact with Mr Sheridan both at his apartment in Maynooth and at Naas Garda station.
Vice President of the National University of Ireland, Prof Jim Walsh, said he college was shocked at what happened. While he didn't know the student, he said lecturers who did said he was well regarded among the other students.