THE family of Ireland’s most expensive prisoner have revealed their fears over his future release and said: We need help.

Brute Alan Ellis, 26, of Rathmines Road Lower, Rathmines, Dublin, last week pleaded guilty to slicing a prison officer’s wrist with a blade moulded into a toothbrush, while the officer was delivering toilet paper.

Ellis, who has 35 previous convictions, was serving a sentence for false imprisonment at the time of the attack.

He tied his 14-year-old victim to a radiator with a flex, poured boiling water down the boy’s trousers and skinned his knuckles, knees and fingertips with a cheese grater.

Judge Patricia Ryan sentenced Ellis to four years’ imprisonment, but suspended the final year. Judge Ryan backdated the sentence to July 21, 2017, when he went into custody on this matter.

It means, with remission, the thug, who is on 23 hour lockdown behind bars, could be out in six months.

Ellis’ mother and sister, who were present in court last week, have written to the Taoiseach and politicians appealing for a change in his prison regime, which they claim not conducive to a therapeutic benefit.

His sister, Rebecca, said she has been told he is Ireland’s most expensive prisoner, costing over €1 million a year to detain.

She told the Irish Times: “Every single day he’s getting worse. We don’t even know who he is anymore. That’s the sad part.
“The last year has been the worst. He’s picked up more P19s (breaches of prison discipline reports) this year since he’s been off the medication than ever before.

“All we’re looking for is help. Alan deserves to live a good life. He’s in solitary confinement, it’s inhumane.”

Over the last six years he has attacked at least four prison officers, multiple inmates (including one he stabbed in the eye) and a prison psychiatrist.

Ellis has been held in Mountjoy in a special cell in the Challenging Behaviour Unit.

On every occasion authorities deal with Ellis, a “full Control and Restraint team” wearing riot gear is required.

He must be searched every time he is returned to his cell to make sure he hasn’t taken any weapons back with him. Every time the prisoner is moved, even to go to the shower, a five person team in full riot gear must be assembled.

He is regarded by prison staff as one of the two most dangerous inmates in the country. The other, Leon Wright, is serving a 13-year term for a series of violent robberies and hijackings.

Medical opinion on Ellis is split. Some doctors believe he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and delusions. Others believes he has some sort of personality disorder such as psychopathy or sociopathy.

In one court hearing his mum Christina told a judge Ellis was like two different people – compassionate one day and behaving like a monster was coming out of him the next.

Rebecca said: “It takes six men to bring him to the shower and they’re going to release him to Mam?

“And she’s going to stand there with her arms open to him saying: ‘Whatever it takes, that’s my baby. If he kills me, he kills me.’”