Joanne Hayes to sue State over treatment in Kerry Babies scandal
Wrongly accused of murdering baby
JOANNE HAYES, the woman who was wrongly accused of murdering a baby in Kerry 35 years ago, is to sue the State after refusing to accept its apology and offer of financial settlement.
Ms Hayes is suing over her wrongful arrest and subsequent charge for the murder of ‘Baby John’ in 1984 in a case that became known as the Kerry Babies case.
Ms Hayes, whose private life was laid bare and reputation torn to pieces in the Kerry Babies Tribunal, is also suing for damages.
Her siblings Kathleen, Mike and Edmond are also taking a case against the State over their wrongful arrest and charge for the concealment of a baby. They too are seeking damages.
The writs were issued by the Central Office of the High Court yesterday. Among those named in the writs are the Attorney General, the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner.
The lawsuits come despite very public apologies from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and the gardaí.
Mr Varadkar said Ms Hayes ‘evidently is a woman who was very badly treated by our State’. Compensation was ‘something we can discuss with her representatives in the period ahead’, he added.
While some of the Taoiseach’s colleagues sympathised with Ms Hayes, a number were surprised that Mr Varadkar would make such a high-profile apology and expose the State financially without consultation. Apologies by the State are usually discussed in depth before being announced.
Nobody from either the Taoiseach’s Office or the Department of Justice was available for comment last night. A Garda spokesperson said the force could not comment on the case. In addition, Patrick Mann, the Co. Kerry lawyer who has represented Ms Hayes and her family since the saga began in 1984, also declined to comment. But sources last night confirmed a total of five writs have been issued against the State.
The family has refused to agree any form of compensation because they didn’t agree with a confidentiality contract they would have to sign. In January, our sister paper The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed Justice chiefs proposed to offer Ms Hayes and her family an undisclosed sum for the trauma and distress they have endured.
The Department of Justice had insisted the family give up their right to any future legal action, and also agree the State would never accept liability. In addition, the family could never seek a written apology. Also, Ms Hayes and her siblings would have to make a written application for compensation that would then be assessed by a panel of people appointed by the Minister of Justice.
No deal has been agreed, and the issue of writs now suggests one is unlikely to be agreed any time soon.
In January this year, the Irish Daily Mail revealed that, almost one year on from the public apologies, the Government still hadn’t paid compensation to Ms Hayes.
The baby found on White Strand Beach near Cahersiveen was later named Baby John. He had been stabbed 28 times. Ms Hayes, who buried her stillborn son on her family’s Abbeydorney farm without telling anybody, was wrongly charged with his murder.
Detectives refused to accept Ms Hayes’s offer to show them where she had buried her own baby. After it was later found and blood tests carried out, charges against her were dropped. The apology she received in January 2018 came after new DNA testing conclusively ruled her out as either Baby John’s mother or murderer.
Conditions of offer weren’t accepted