Yet another crime against Joanne Hayes

THE Kerry babies case was one of the most bizarre episodes in the history of the State, a modern-day witch-hunt against a young woman who gardaí believed had killed a baby and dumped his body on a remote beach in 1984. At every stage, they made the most irrelevant facts fit the theory to which they blindly clung, and in the process allowed the real culprit to remain unknown in the decades since.

Last year, DNA evidence finally proved that Joanne Hayes, who had been pressured into confessing to a crime she did not commit, could not have been the baby’s mother. She received an official Garda apology and was promised compensation for the ordeal that affected not only her but her siblings and a daughter who was only two years old at the time.

Now, though, the Irish Mail On Sunday has seen secret documents relating to payments to all the Hayes family, and what they propose is yet another chilling example of the dark State in action, looking first and foremost to protect itself rather than do what is right.

The proposed payment is identified as ex-gratia, effectively meaning the State denies legal culpability for Ms Hayes’s trauma but will pay the money by way of moral obligation. The conditions of acceptance are stark. The State takes no responsibility for the nature of the Garda investigation at the time or for the findings of a subsequent tribunal of inquiry. The Hayes family will forfeit their right to any future legal action. They will not be allowed discuss the settlement figure or to disclose any of the correspondence leading up to or following it.

In short, by accepting what is rightfully theirs, they must remain silent for the rest of their lives.

Once again, the State is demonstrating its primary function – to protect itself and its institutions when it should be guarding and vindicating the rights of its citizens.