‘Kerry Babies gardaí should donate libel payout they got from book to Joanne’
Publisher of Joanne Hayes’ memoir says ‘morally they owe’
SENIOR gardaí who received five-figure libel payouts from a publisher over a book about the Kerry Babies scandal should compensate the young woman falsely accused of murdering her baby, it has been claimed.
The call was made by the publisher of the Joanne Hayes book, My Story, which detailed how the 25-year-old mother-of-one and her family made statements confessing to something they did not do.
Publisher Bernie Goggin said the now retired gardaí who received the substantial awards ‘morally owe’ Ms Hayes because their handling of the case has since been discredited by Garda authorities.
Former gardaí Gerry O’Carroll, John Harrington and the late PJ Browne were each
‘She was deprived of money coming from it’
awarded £17,500 punts plus costs when they settled their case against the publishing company, Brandon Books, on the steps of the High Court in November 1989. Their colleague Joe Shelly also received a payout after he took legal action shortly afterwards.
The four gardaí have persistently denied any wrongdoing in their investigation. However, State papers released in 2015 revealed that former Garda commissioner Lawrence Wren said in a memo to Cabinet as far back as 1984 that an internal Garda review of the Kerry Babies investigation clearly indicated officers were ‘grossly negligent in their handling of the case’.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend, Bernie Goggin, who owned the former publisher Brandon Books, said: ‘Their fundamental claim against us was that the whole thrust of the book was making them look bad, making them feel that they were in disrepute in their village where they were living among their people.
‘The book had gone through two sets of libel lawyers and was gutted at that stage. It was a very innocuous book. There was a film option. I think it was roughly £8,000 punts at the time, but of course there would have been a bigger payment if it had progressed.
‘When I settled the case in the Four Courts, I didn’t think there was any coming back from that. If the film had gone ahead, which immediately had to be dropped, Joanne would have made money. We had to scrap all the books we had printed.’
Mr Goggin said he accepts he
cannot claim back any of the money he lost to the libel action, but he suggested the gardaí could give at least part of their settlement to Ms Hayes’ family.
He told the MoS: ‘I cannot claim it in any shape or form, but they could give it to Joanne. She was deprived of money coming from it. She lost out on royalties and from the film. They have been discredited over the handling of the case and they could do a moral right by giving substantial sums to Joanne, her child and the Hayes family. Morally they owe.’
The MoS contacted now retired Gerry O’Carroll, Joe Shelly and John Harrington to ask would they consider offering their five-figure libel payouts to the Hayes family.
Former Superintendent Joe Shelly said he had ‘no comment’ to make. Former Detective Inspector Gerry O’Carroll did not reply to texts. John Harrington did not reply to a detailed email.
The Kerry Babies case was recently featured in the RTÉ series Crimes and Confessions. A tribunal of inquiry was held after Joanne Hayes and her family claimed they signed false confessions.
The body of a newborn boy who had been stabbed multiple times was found on a beach at Cahersiveen in April 1984. Gardaí from the Murder Squad discovered Joanne Hayes, then 25, had recently given birth.
After several hours of interrogation, she and her family signed confessions, which they later retracted.
It emerged that it was medically impossible for Joanne Hayes to have been the mother of the baby on the beach because their blood types did not match.
Ms Hayes said she gave birth to a baby on the family farm at Abbeydorney but that the infant had died. Gardaí then suggested she had given birth to both babies.
The charges were later dropped but the inquiry, chaired by Judge Kevin Lynch, sparked outcry when Ms Hayes was questioned in depth about her personal life.
Judge Lynch exonerated the gardaí and found mem
bers of the Hayes family had lied. His findings were later overturned by the High Court and the family have received an apology and substantial compensation from the State.
In a memo to government in 1984, Commissioner Wren concluded that: ‘The officers conducting the criminal investigation into the death of the Cahersiveen baby were grossly negligent in their handling of the case.’