Gary Douch and Stephen Egan knew each other from the streets. They weren't friends, just vague acquaintances. But when fate placed them in the same jail cell in Mountjoy prison on a hot summer night in July 2006, the pair got to know each other on an intimate level that would leave one of them dead.

In Gary Douch's last few hours he discovered the true meaning of utter terror and what it feels like to be tortured all night until your body finally succumbs to death.

And Egan, in the throes of a psychotic episode, was driven to kill the younger and weaker man. The sense of power the 25-year-old radiated in the holding cell that night was such that the five other inmates present were too petrified to try and stop him or call for help.

Before Douch, who had asked to go into protective custody, was placed in the same cell, he had been preparing for his release a few month's later. He had been taking stock of his life and rebuilding his relationship with his mother Maggie Rafter from behind bars. The young man, only eight days into his 21st year, seemed finally to be growing up.

He was no angel. He was two years into a three-year prison sentence for an accumulation of offences including driving without tax and insurance, possession of drugs and breaking a barring order against his mother. He was due for early release within three months.

"Everyone in this area knew Gary. His nickname was 'Niga' because he was so sallow. The minute the sun came out, he'd take off his top to sun himself and get a tan," recalled Fr Terry Murray, a local priest in Darndale who knew the young man since his teens and visited him in prison.

"Everyone knew him and everyone liked him. He had problems with alcohol and drugs. But mostly, he was his own worst enemy."

Life had its fair share of knocks for Douch. His father had left the family when he was a child and his parents later divorced. When he was 14, his mother moved the family out of Darndale, the sprawling housing estate beset with crime and anti-social behaviour on Dublin's northside. She moved the family to Tallaght to live with her new partner. But Gary was having none of it. He point blank refused to leave the only life he knew, the one place he felt he belonged.

"He came back after they left," said Fr Murray. "I used to try and reach out to Gary and his friends. I've buried a lot of his group of friends now from suicide, drugs and road-traffic accidents. Most of the funerals in this area, it's the young people we're burying, not the old."

As his mother couldn't get him to stay in Tallaght, the teenager lived with friends and their families in Darndale. Because everyone knew him and liked him, he never had a problem finding somewhere to sleep and get his dinner. But other problems were developing. Douch dropped out of school and his reliance on alcohol became obvious. He was also developing a drug habit and his mother had a barring order out against her son, who could not accept her new partner. He was spiralling out of control on the night that sealed his three-year incarceration.

Three years in prison

Late one night, the 19-year-old arrived in Tallaght, vandalised his mother's partner's new car and threatened to burn down their house. She called the gardaí on her son, who was intoxicated. He was sentenced to three years in prison for a range of offences. By July 2006, he could almost taste his upcoming freedom and his mother was planning a big 21st birthday party for him.

Prison hadn't treated him well. Of slight build and young age, Douch would have been an easy target for prisoners looking for a fight and was regularly beaten up.

If Douch's life seemed troubled, it screams of normality compared to Egan's difficult existence. His psychiatric problems began as a child when he suffered abuse from his mother's heroin-addicted partner from the age of 11. This abuse sent was cited as a mitigating factor when he was charged in relation to a rampage in a stolen car when the Coolock native knocked down and injured a student garda. Egan also watched his mother being abused by her violent partner, who regularly injected heroin in front of Egan and his siblings.

Egan has been addicted to alcohol since his preteens and used heavy sedatives as a young teenager. He was over six foot and 15 stone, and displayed a propensity to violence. He seriously assaulted a female prison officer in 2005 and attacked a male officer who came to her rescue. In the three years he had been in prison, he had been moved seven times, and three days before he killed Douch, he was returned to the prison from the Central Mental Hospital after being certified sane. But someone forgot to give him the medication he was taking for a severe psychiatric disorder. He'd been without it for 72 hours when he came into contact with Douch.

On the night of 31 July, something happened on the B landing that caused Douch to ask to be placed in protective custody. He had been branded a "rat" by some inmates. It was a hot, sticky night in Mountjoy, the type that all prison officers fear in the summer when the heat mixed with dangerous levels of overcrowding leads to violence between restless inmates. Douch was taken down to the basement of the prison, anxious to get away from whoever was causing his grief.

Holding cell

Prison officers brought the 5' 6" inmate down to the basement protection cells but they were full so he was instead placed in a holding cell with six others, including Stephen Egan. Other prisoners in that fateful cell have said since that when Douch caught a glimpse of the other inmates' names on the door, he protested as soon as he spotted Egan's name. But there was no going back.

Only the seven men cramped into that small holding cell know what sparked Egan off that night but the remaining five were too petrified to do anything. Some of the group had been playing cards when Egan launched a sustained assault on Douch, a beating that saw him kick, stamp and strangle the younger man in a cat-and-mouse type sadistic game that continued on all night. He smeared his excrement over his victim's upper body. Egan tried to force the other five inmates to sexually assault Douch when he was lying unconscious, possibly already dead, on the floor. In an attempt to offer some kind of dignity, one of the prisoners placed a blanket over Douch when he eventually died that night.

In the morning, prison officers discovered the dead body. Questions remain over why the five others seemed powerless to do anything to stop Egan, an issue Fr Murray finds difficult to reconcile.

"How could the five of them not overpower him?" he asks. "Maybe both families will get some answers from the inquiry and the inquest."

The government has appointed a commission to investigate the killing and examine the management of mentally-ill prisoners. Many of the 112 possible witnesses, including the five inmates who shared the basement holding cell, have given evidence at private hearings to the commission, headed by barrister Grainne McMorrow.

The hearings are due to conclude in October and McMorrow will deliver her report to the minister in early 2010, who will then decide whether to publish it, according to a spokeswoman from the Department of Justice.

McMorrow, the sole member of the commission, has focused on trying to find out exactly what happened in the cell that night, in a bid to get some sense of closure for both families. And, most importantly, her report will make recommendations to ensure it can never happen again.

But at this moment in time, the chances of a similar incident re-occurring are higher than ever. The Central Mental Hospital (CMH) came out publically in recent weeks to say that since 15 June, it could no longer accept any more dangerous or suicidal patients from the prisons or elsewhere because of staff shortages.

The hospital is involved in a very public row with the HSE and is trying to put pressure on the health service to fill 25 much-needed nursing posts.

So what is the Irish Prison Service (IPS) to do if the hospital refuses to take prisoners who are dangerous psychotics like Egan? The prison service simply does not know.

"Prisons are not appropriate locations to treat patients who have been clinically assessed as requiring admission to the CMH," according to a prison service statement.

While the CMH made a public statement about no longer being able to accept new patients, it has failed to inform the prison authorities about this major development.

'No new admissions'

The prison service has now written to the hospital to enquire about the situation. The Sunday Tribune understands that despite the hospital's insistence it cannot take any new admissions, it accepted a prisoner transfer on 24 June. "It could be seen as a bit of a PR exercise I suppose, them saying one thing but then taking a prisoner," said to a source. "But it also shows what a desperate situation the hospital is in that it needs to put public pressure on the HSE in this way."

The CMH was unavailable for comment.

Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at the Mater Hospital and University College Dublin, says the CMH's hands are tied by staff shortages and another prisoner could die in similar situation to Douch. "We may see the consequences of the HSE failing to provide staff for the CMH. Potentially, we have a ticking time bomb situation in our prisons."

Egan was found guilty of Douch's manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in April, and was given a life sentence last week. He is now in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise.

Fr Murray, still a regular visitor to Mountjoy, deplores its conditions and is downbeat when considering the question of whether Gary Douch died in vain. "It's too late for Gary and for Stephen Egan. Hopefully lessons have been learned and this will never happen again. But I doubt it."