Sean Lynch
The young Derry man who blinded himself in prison has spoken for the first time about his ordeal.
Sean Lynch faces a life in darkness after using his thumbs to burst both his eyeballs in Maghaberry Jail.
The 23 year old was in the grip of mental illness when he slashed his throat, his genitals and his wrists before finally gouging his eyes.
Each time he was stitched up and returned to prison where he was eventually able to inflict disastrous injuries on himself despite assurances from the prison that he was receiving help.
Tragically Sean, a talented footballer offered a contract by Newcastle United, was due to be released from prison for breaching his bail conditions on an assault charge just five days after he blinded himself.
But he was so plagued by delusions caused by his mental state that he believed prison staff were trying to kill him and self-harm was his only escape.
His distraught father Damien says the inquiry currently underway by the Prison Ombudsman has many questions to answer.
One of the most serious is how the lump of glass Sean used to lacerate his scrotum ended up in a cell for vulnerable prisoners.
He has questioned how Sean was not admitted to a psychiatric unit despite at least five different professionals voicing concern for his mental heath - the magistrate who remanded him; the PSNI officer who escorted him to prison; a nurse in the prison; a senior prison officer and the doctor who treated him in Craigavon Area Hospital.
Damien has also revealed that while his son was being treated for his eye injuries in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast there was six prison wardens on rotation watching him - in the Lisburn jail there was just one person watching 40 cells.
Despite the increased security in the hospital and Sean's blindness Damien was barred from his son's room five days after his admission and told he'd have to apply to Maghaberry for a visit to his bedside.
Sean is now being treated as a day patient at Gransha Hospital in Derry and will be dependent on Damien and mum Terry Johnstone for the rest of his life.
Speaking to Sunday World last week with his dad by his side the young man is clearly still battling with his mental health issues and gripped with fear that his life was under threat.
Despite receiving daily care and medication he is still in the clutches of the delusion that he was being drugged and gassed.
"They wanted me dead. They spiked my dinner; I'm not sure if it was with heroin or LSD and I was off my head even though I'd stayed clean up there the whole time," says Sean.
"They wanted me dead, that's why the poisoned me, and then they pumped carbon monoxide into my cell.
"I cut my wrists in there and they took me to Craigavon. I cut my testicles and they took me to Craigavon and then took me back to prison. Two nights later I ripped open the stitches and then gouged my eyes out."
Despite his mental health issues it's indisputable that he used the lump of glass in his cell to lacerate his genitals. The injuries he inflicted required over two hours of surgery.
"I got moved by cutting my wrists and trying to kill myself. They moved me into a brand new cell and the only thing in the cell apart from the bed and the four walls was a big bit of glass in the bin. It was the only thing you could see in the whole cell.
"God knows how it got there."
Just weeks after the horrific injuries he inflicted upon himself Sean has been registered blind and begun preparing for life without his sight.
"I'm going to have to cope with it," he says.
For his father it's also a life sentence.
He's revealed that life could have been so different for Sean, who stood out in his teens as one of the most talented footballers of his generation.
At the age of 15 Newcastle United offered the youngster a contract and moved him over to England, and they weren't the only Premiership team interested in signing him.
"Right through school Sean was the fastest in his class and by the time he was a teenager he was over with all the big clubs - Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham, Celtic. He also played with the Northern Ireland youth team, and there were scouts coming to me saying they hadn't seen talent like his in 30 years. But when he went over to Newcastle he couldn't settle and he came back after a couple of weeks.
"Then he fell in with the wrong crowd. He got into a bit of trouble but never anything serious. Right up to last year he had the chance to sign with Hearts but it just didn't happen.
"He ended up in prison over an assault charge from a domestic that was dropped and then brought up again. He was remanded because he breached his bail conditions not to go over to the other side of the city. His mates were playing football and he went over and got spotted and arrested on Easter Monday."
Damien had been concerned about Sean's erratic behaviour in the months before his imprisonment and had sought medical help.
"He'd done things like kneeling in the middle of the road and saying prayers for five minutes. I took him to the doctor who said he was fine, but how can someone who looks at him for a couple of minutes know what's really going on."
The 47 year old dad-of-three fervently believed that when Sean went into prison he'd get the psychiatric help he needed, and he was reassured on several occasions that he would.
"The Thursday before he gouged his eyes a nurse from the prison called me to say she was worried about him, and gave me a direct number to call, and told me they'd look after him.
"I rang the prison on the Friday and they said the nurses had all knocked off for the weekend," says Damien.
"The wardens assured me that Sean was in a cell for vulnerable prisoners and they were watching him on cameras and would take care of him. But there was one warden for 40 cells. The last thing Sean said to me was 'I'll never forget your big blue eyes.'
"In hospital there were six prison officers on shifts. I slept in the room with Sean and at that stage we knew he'd never see again. He'd pushed his thumbs in and all the fluid from inside his eyes has gone, along with the damage to the retinas.
"On the fifth day in the hospital a different warder turned up and told me I couldn't open the ward door, and Sean couldn't smoke, and if I gave any trouble I'd be barred from the room. And he did it, he barred me from the room for most of the day and said I had to apply to the prison to visit Sean's bedside. I'll never forget the guy waving to me as I walked down corridor.
The Prison Service would only say that the Prison Ombudsman is currently investigating the case and it can't make any comment.
For Damien the truth is simple.
"I looked after Sean for 23 years and there was no self-harm. Now his life has been taken away from him. They sent him back to me to take care of him.
"I want to see people held responsible," he says.