Killer of Melanie McCarthy McNamara charged with threatening to slit prison officer’s throat

The prison officer allegedly found a sharpened piece of metal when he was searching Daniel McDonnell's cell in Wheatfield Prison.

It is alleged that the 28-year-old then told the prison officer "I'm going to slit your throat with that".

McDonnell is currently serving a mandatory life sentence for the gun murder of 16-year-old Melanie McCarthy McNamara.

On Wednesday, the accused was brought before Blanchardstown District Court where he was charged with making a threat to kill or cause serious harm to a named prison officer.

The offence allegedly took place at Wheatfield Prison, Cloverhill Road in Clondalkin on August 12, 2021.

Judge Ciaran Liddy refused jurisdiction to deal with the matter and adjourned the case for a book of evidence.

Outlining the allegation for jurisdiction purposes, Garda Mark Grant alleged that the prison officer found a sharpened piece of metal in McDonnell's cell during a routine inspection.

Gda Grant alleged that McDonnell, with a previous address at Brookview Lawn in Tallaght, said that he would slit the prison officer's throat.

He then allegedly made a threat that: "I'm going to slit your throat with that and if I can't do that I'm going to get someone on the outside to do it".

Judge Liddy refused jurisdiction to deal with the matter in the district court and he adjourned the case to a date in April for the DPP's directions on the charge.

McDonnell received a life sentence in 2014 for the murder of tragic teen Melanie McCarthy McNamara.

The teenager was shot in the head as she sat in a car with her boyfriend and a friend at Brookview Way in Tallaght on February 8, 2012.

McDonnell had denied murdering Melanie, but he wrote two letters while in custody which were used as evidence in his trial. One included the line ‘’two in the head, the b**** is dead’’.