THE COMMISSION of investigation set up to probe the killing of Gary Douche at Mountjoy Prison in 2006 has uncovered "significant" new evidence about the inmate who delivered the fatal beating against the prisoner, the Sunday Tribune understands.

Senior counsel Gráinne McMorrow was appointed in 2007 to head up the commission of investigation into the circumstances that led to the killing of the 20-year-old prisoner by fellow inmate Stephen Egan.

Egan, of Belcamp Crescent in Coolock, Dublin, was found not guilty of the murder of his cellmate but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.

McMorrow, the sole member of the commission of investigation, is currently finalising her report which is expected to be critical of government penal policy, prison management and overcrowding.

She is due to present her extensive report to the justice minister by March which will include details of the new evidence.

The report will then most likely be published by the Department of Justice following legal consultation.

"I am optimistic that the report will be with the minister by March," said McMorrow. "It has been a lengthy process but I would like to thank all the witnesses for their cooperation and Gary Douche's family in particular during this difficult time."

McMorrow has been carrying out the investigation free of charge since January last year. The new evidence that has come to light in relation to Egan, which cannot be discussed for legal reasons, has delayed the long-running investigation.

Egan had been in the Central Mental Hospital but was later transferred to Mountjoy where he was put in a cell with Douche and five other people without the medication he needed for his mental illness. He beat Douche to death and smeared excrement on his face after subjecting him to a terrifying ordeal on 1 August 2006.

Over 100 possible witnesses were identified to give oral evidence at the private hearings, including the five inmates who shared a basement holding cell with the victim and his killer. Most of the witnesses gave evidence at the hearings. The prisoners who witnessed the killing did not appear as witnesses during Egan's trial.

It is understood that Egan cooperated fully with the commission's investigation when interviewed.

The investigation has so far cost less than €1.3m and has come in under budget.

All other staff have been paid from that money, including part-time senior and junior counsel, expert psychiatrists and psychologists from Ireland and the UK, and the one other full-time staff member, a secretary seconded from the Department of Justice.

However, that money cannot be used to pay the commission's sole member. McMorrow was paid for the first two-and-a-half years, but her pay was stopped on 20 January 2009 and she has not been paid since but undertook to complete the investigation free of charge.