Joanne Hayes may take State to court
Family have yet to agree to secret deal over Kerry Babies case
THE family of Joanne Hayes and others affected by the Kerry Babies scandal have not yet accepted a secret Government payment and are now considering their legal options, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
There may be court submissions as early as this week dealing with a proposal to offer Joanne Hayes and members of her family an undisclosed sum for the trauma and distress they have endured in the decades since the scandal.
Taking legal action would mean the family has refused the State’s offer – condemned as an effort to ‘buy their silence’ over the Kerry Babies scandal.
A source close to the Hayes family confirmed that they are considering taking legal action: ‘Their representatives are intent on maximising the compensation. If that means going to court then so be it – but I don’t think it will come to that. I don’t think the department could be that stupid.’
The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed last week that the Department of Justice has drafted documents – seen by this newspaper – outlining the secret payment proposal.
Cervical cancer whistleblower Vicky Phelan, who herself fought a gagging order, has criticised the secret bid to buy the family’s permanent silence and said it is further compounding their suffering.
Ms Hayes was wrongly accused of murdering a baby boy found stabbed to death on a beach in Kerry 35 years ago.
Last year, she finally received apologies from An Garda Síochána, the Taoiseach and the Justice Minister for her ordeal.
Despite those apologies, if the family wishes to receive financial redress, they must agree to: a confidentiality clause; no written apology; no liability accepted by the State and forfeit their rights to any and all future actions. The offer includes Joanne’s siblings Kathleen, Ned and Mike, and daughter Yvonne McGuckin, who was two years old at the time of the scandal.
The family would have to make a written application for assessment and be assessed by a board of three people appointed by the minister.
When ‘Baby John’ was discovered on a beach outside Cahersiveen in south Kerry on April 14, 1984, Ms Hayes was 24 and living with her family in Abbeydorney, north Kerry.
Ms Hayes – who had concealed the birth and death of her own baby that year – was arrested and subsequently, during Garda questioning, confessed to the murder.
Her brothers Ned and Mike, sister Kathleen and aunt Bridie Fuller were charged with endeavouring to conceal the birth of the child by secretly disposing of his body. The charges were dropped soon after.
The department’s proposal states that ‘eligible’ members of the Hayes family will receive ex-gratia payments, which it carefully stresses is not ‘compensation’.
CervicalCheck campaigner Ms Phelan told the MoS: ‘They certainly shouldn’t be asking her to sign a confidentiality agreement considering what she’s already been through.’
Kildare TD Catherine Murphy said: ‘The idea that there is a gagging order says to me that it is really about closure – but closure on the State’s side as opposed to offering closure on Joanne Hayes’s and her family’s side.’
Minister Charlie Flanagan was one of those who apologised to Ms Hayes in January 2018, saying she ‘was subject to a prolonged ordeal that was simply wrong on every level’.
In response to queries from the MoS, a department spokesperson said: ‘The Government and An Garda Síochana have apologised to Ms Hayes. Ms Hayes asked for her privacy to be protected and we have sought to respect her wishes. We are endeavouring to reach a settlement with her and others in this complex case. “No liability” clauses are generally automatic features of ex-gratia payments.’
The spokesperson added that a live criminal investigation continues into the case of Baby John.
‘It that means going to court then so be it’ ‘They shouldn’t ask her to sign gagging order’