Fourteen-year-old Brian Rossiter had been arrested for a public order offence on the night of 10/11 September 2002, falling into a coma whilst in custody at Clonmel garda station.

Prior to his arrest, Rossiter had been assaulted by Noel Hannigan, who was later found guilty of this offence and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.

However, the case was the focus of much controversy and media speculation within Ireland, owing to concerns as to whether the injuries that caused Rossiter's death occurred, not as a result of Hannigan's assault, but while he was in custody.

On 10 September at approximately 9:30 in the evening, Rossiter, having allegedly drunk some cider and smoked some hash, was arrested along with his 14-year-old friend, Anthony O'Sullivan, for a public order offence.

[3] Meanwhile, in Cork, consultant neurosurgeon Charles Marks extracted a clot from Brian Rossiter's brain, but he did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead shortly after 5:30 on the afternoon of 13 September 2002.

[9] A settlement was eventually reached in July 2008 which meant that an inquest into his son's death could hear evidence from two UK-based Professors of Forensic Pathology whom the Coroner had previously refused to call as witnesses.

[30] In February 2008, Rossiter's family had criticised the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, believing that he had set up the inquiry under the wrong Act.

[38] Brian Rossiter's father told the inquest that a detective garda had informed him that his son had taken as many as sixteen ecstasy tablets, was "drunk out of his mind" and "as high as a kite",[39] and yet later toxicology reports showed no evidence of this.

Professor Christopher Milroy, a British Home office pathologist for 17 years and a reviewer of Rossiter's file, said it was more likely that he had sustained the injury which killed him subsequent to the Hanning assault, and closer to the time that he was found unconscious in his Clonmel prison cell.

[41] On the day before the jury retired, a forensic pathologist said that it was impossible for him to determine whether the fatal strike had been inflicted late on the evening of 8 September, around the time that Hannigan's assault had taken place, or at a later date.

[50] The Irish State acknowledged its acceptance that Rossiter's detention was unlawful, that the Treatment of Persons in Custody Act was not followed appropriately and that issues surrounding his death were not sufficiently investigated.

[52] These were that medical attention should be called to any garda station for any person, and especially those under the age of 17, if there were obvious signs of any injury or weakness, and that social services should be made available to gardaí at all times.

[53] Rossiter's parents described their six-year battle for justice as "gruelling"[54] but expressed the wish that their son's death had not been in vain and welcomed the recommendations made by the jury regarding improvements in health and safety, in cases where young people are detained.