JOANNE HAYES: STATE’S SECRET TALKS
Compensation sought over Kerry Babies injustice
THE State is to hold secret talks with lawyers representing the family of Joanne Hayes to agree compensation over the Kerry Babies scandal. Joanne Hayes was wrongly accused of murdering a baby boy found stabbed to death on a beach in Co. Kerry 35 years ago.
Baby John was found with 28 stab wounds, including four to the heart, on White Strand near Caherciveen on April 14, 1984.
Charges of murder were later dropped against Ms Hayes and a number of fellow family members.
Her brothers Ned and Mike, her sister Kathleen and aunt Bridie Fuller were also wrongfully charged with endeavouring to conceal the birth of the child by secretly disposing of his body contrary to Section 50 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. More than three decades later,
Government sources have now confirmed that the Chief State Solicitor has instructed a senior barrister to represent the State in the talks and a mediator is to be agreed by both sides in the coming weeks.
The mediation talks are being set up as an alternative to what both sides accept would otherwise be a lengthy, intrusive, distressing and very expensive High Court compensation battle. Joanne Hayes, her siblings Kathleen, Mike and Ned, and her daughter Yvonne McGuckin, are demanding massive compensation from the State for the trauma they suffered 36 years ago.
Joanne Hayes and her family were interrogated by gardaí at Tralee Garda Station following the discovery of the body of a baby boy on White Strand, outside Caherciveen on April 14, 1984.
Ms Hayes was wrongly charged with the baby’s murder and members of her family were wrongly charged with concealing the birth.
DNA testing has now established, beyond all doubt, that Ms Hayes was not the mother of the Caherciveen baby and had nothing to do with the child’s death. Ms Hayes had given birth at that time to her own baby which died after birth.
She told gardaí during interviews that the baby’s body was buried on the family farm in Abbeydorney. However, gardaí initially failed to find the body despite searches.
A Tribunal of Inquiry report, written by the late Mr Justice Kevin Lynch in 1985, accused Joanne Hayes of killing her own baby on the family farm in Abbeydorney.
Gardaí were largely exonerated in the report, while members of the Hayes family were labelled as liars.
Now, the Hayes family are suing the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General, the Garda Commissioner, the DPP and the State for a raft of aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages. The claim for damages includes: malicious prosecution; false imprisonment; unlawful arrest; assault and battery, negligence, abuse of power, conspiracy;
emotional suffering and breach of constitutional and human rights.
And they are further demanding a declaration by the State that Joanne Hayes’s arrest and ‘aborted prosecution’ for murder was unfounded or malicious and in breach of her rights.
Kathleen, Mike and Ned Hayes want a similar declaration for the ‘aborted prosecution for concealing the birth of a child’.
Another aspect of the Hayes family’s claim relates to the Kerry Babies Tribunal Report, published in October 1985, which is the State’s official record of the case.
The Hayes family wants the report ‘set aside in its entirety’ and withdrawn from public record.
In January 2019, the Government offered the Hayes family an ‘ex-gratia’ compensation package that would include an out-of-court settlement to be decided by an independent panel of experts.
This followed an apology from gardaí and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to Joanne Hayes and other members of her family for their treatment during the scandal.
Gardaí also confirmed that DNA testing had confirmed that Joanne Hayes was not the mother of the baby found at White Strand in 1984.
However, part of that agreement included an undertaking that no further court actions would follow and a demand that the settlement terms remain secret.
Solicitor Pat Mann, on behalf of the Hayes family, rejected the offer and then moved to take legal action in the High Court.
Now, the Chief State Solicitor has instructed senior counsel Conleth Bradley to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.
When contacted, Mr Mann confirmed he is acting for the Hayes family but refused to comment on any mediation talks or on the progress of the case.
Mr Bradley is an experienced and highly-respected barrister. Last November, he represented the Ceann
‘Family want report set aside in entirety’
Comhairle in a High Court action over his decision to disallow a Bill proposed by four TDs which the court ultimately ruled was unconstitutional and should be overturned.
Meanwhile, gardaí confirmed this week that the investigation is ongoing into the identity of the baby found dead at White Strand in 1984 the Kerry Baby or the Caherciveen Baby – and those responsible for his death.
‘Significant work has been undertaken by the local investigation team, supported by the Serious Crime Review Team.
‘Over 400 separate lines of inquiry have been generated as part of the review into this investigation.
‘Regular case conferences have been held by Garda management, the most recent being in January of this year,’ a Garda spokesperson said.
‘Gardaí are still appealing for information from the public and believe that members of the community in South Kerry have information about the identity of the mother of Baby John,’ he added.