A REPUBLICAN prisoner suffering from cancer is asking to be transferred from a jail in the North to Portlaoise prison so that he can be near his family. Pat Kelly (43), of Ballybrittas, Co Laois, who is serving 25 years for conspiracy to cause explosions and attempted murder, is recovering from a major operation for cancer at Belfast City Hospital last week.
He was transferred last month from Whitemoor jail in England to Maghaberry prison in Lisburn, Co Antrim, and wants to be moved to Portlaoise, which is only six miles from his home. He is married with six children and has seen his youngest child only three times.
Kelly, who was sentenced in 1993, is appealing his conviction, but no date has been set for the hearing. "I know I am going to die. I just want to spend my final days with my wife and children," he said.
Kelly claimed that the British prison authorities failed to monitor his condition properly. He had originally suffered from a skin cancer with a high rate of recovery, but "medical neglect" while in jail in England had caused his health to deteriorate, he said.
He claimed he was shackled to a bed, or a prison officer, for three weeks in Peterborough Hospital in England, where he was arrested in 1992. "When I was taking a bath there were seven people in the room and me naked - with a chain around my ankle - shackled to a prison warder while I sat in the bath in the middle of the room."