Car scam conman Eamon Shield is now suing the Irish Prison Service and the Minister for Justice for allegedly failing to protect him Christopher Coakley (left), pictured here with Derek Hutch who was shot dead by the Kinahan cartel near Wheatfield Prison in 2018 Christopher Coakley, a cousin of Kinahan cartel murder victim Derek Coakley Hutch, has been identified in the Circuit Civil Court as the man who bladed convicted scammer Eamon Shield eight years ago in Mountjoy Prison after Shield had been seen talking with a garda. Car scam conman Shield, (51) of Esker Pines, Lucan, Co Dublin, is now suing the Irish Prison Service and the Minister for Justice for €60,000 damages for negligence in allegedly failing to protect him from violent assault while he served a four-year sentence for theft and deception. Shield told his counsel Ben Clarke that the attack by Coakley had taken place on the day he had been tipped off about rumours circulating among prisoners that there was some threat against him.
David Boughton, counsel for the state, told Judge Jennifer O’Brien that the prison authorities had no knowledge of any threat against Mr Shield at the time nor had they any record or knowledge of a complaint by Shield allegedly made to a senior prison officer before the attack. Shield said he had been attacked from behind by Coakley using a weapon fashioned out of double razor blades. He had been left with parallel deep lacerations across his right cheek and taken to the Mater Hospit.