Killer’s jail release to attend course cancelled after he fails drugs test

The Sunday World has learned a random drug test carried out on Costigan returned a positive result for the banned substances earlier this week.

Opiates are typically used pain relief and include opium, morphine and codeine.

Sources said Costigan’s daily temporary release arrangements to attend an education course at an external facility was immediately cancelled.

And, it’s understood the thug has been removed from Mountjoy’s Progression Unit and placed back in the main prison.

“It’s a major setback for him in terms of gaining his freedom,” a source told the Sunday World.

“It’s puts him back to square one in terms of his rehabilitation.”

Costigan is serving life in prison for the horrific murder of Kilkenny woman Christine Quinn.

He was convicted of the murder at her home in Kilkenny City in 2002.

He has never admitted the murder or apologised to the victim’s family.

The 36-year-old was stabbed 35 times by Costigan and sustained 69 knife injuries.

Costigan, who has never admitted the murder or apologised to the victim’s family also set three separate fires to the house at Greenfields in Kilkenny City to try and destroy the evidence.

In 2004 he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.

In February 2023 the parole board refused parole stating that ‘the board has concerns that Mark Costigan would pose an undue risk to the community, were he to be released on parole at this stage’ and stated that Costigan would not be eligible for review for two years.

However in recent weeks Christine Quinns sons Ronan and Jason Quinn were informed by the Victim Liaison Service in the Irish Prison Service that Costigan has been approved for daily temporary release for a period of two days per week, to attend an educational course accompanied by his probation officer.

Speaking with the Irish Sun newspaper earlier this week, Christine’s son Ronan said: “It’s complete madness to have this man walking around the streets of Dublin. The whole purpose of prison is rehabilitation but this prisoner has never shown any remorse for my mother’s murder.

“How can someone be afforded these concessions when he continues to deny the murder of a mother in her own home?

“We were told that he posed a risk to the public yet here he is getting out of prison two days a week with only a probation officer.

“I would have great concerns for members of the public because we are dealing with a convicted murderer — not some pretty ­criminal. My mother was a victim of gender-based violence but she has been failed by the State.

Jason added: “I have family in Dublin and we should not be put in a position where we could encounter our mother’s killer.

“He can get on with his life but my girls only know a headstone in a graveyard as granny …

“One minute we are being told he poses a risk to the community and the next minute we are being told he’s being allowed out with a probation officer.

“We want to know why a ­pre-release course is being offered when he hasn’t been granted parole yet? It seems to me that this is under an assumption he is going to be released shortly when the next parole review is due February 2025.”

Costigan of Aylesbury, Kilkenny, who was just 16 at the time of the murder, had denied killing mother-of-two Christine Quinn at her home on nearby Greenfields Road on December 5, 2002.

The killer had been a regular visitor to Ms Quinn’s home – the families knew each other and the accused was friendly with Ms Quinn’s younger son.

It was Ms Quinn’s other son, Jason, an army private who discovered his mother dead in her smoke-filled kitchen, on his return from his barracks at 4.45 that December afternoon.

She had been stabbed 35 times; her fire-damaged body had 69 knife injuries and a blade had been left in her scalp.

Her attacker had tried to set the house on fire.

During Costigan’s three-week trial, the court heard that on that Thursday afternoon, between 1.50pm and 4.45pm, an intruder came into the victim’s home and stabbed her to death.

There was evidence of a struggle in the kitchen and hall, and three separate fires had been lit in the house before the assailant left.

State Pathologist Marie Cassidy concluded the cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the trunk of the body, especially to the lungs liver and heart, including the aorta.

“She obviously had put up some fight,” Dr Cassidy said, pointing out that injuries to Ms Quinn’s hands were consistent with defensive injuries.

A forensic scientist said blood with a DNA profile matching that of Mark Costigan was found upstairs.

The match was made with blood on a bedroom doorknob, a duvet cover, a soccer jersey and a radiator as well as on a banister.

Alexander Owens, SC, for the prosecution, said the only credible conclusion was that while killing Ms Quinn, the accused broke a knife – the blade of which was found in her skull – and injured himself.

The victim’s younger son, Ronan, gave evidence to the court by video-link.

He said he had known Costigan all his life, and had been very friendly with him during the summer of 2001.

The friends fell out that September, when claims were made that Costigan may have been partly to blame for Ms Quinn’s mobile phone going missing.

On the afternoon of the murder, Costigan arrived at Gamesworld, a 25-minute walk from the Quinn home.

CCTV footage showed his right hand was hidden, his sweatshirt bloodstained and he tendered a bloody £50 note to buy a PlayStation game.

A PlayStation 2 was one the few things missing from the Quinn home after the murder.

Contacted this week, a spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service declined to comment.

“The Irish Prison Service does not comment on individual prisoner cases,” the spokesperson said.