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Kerry babies case
The Kerry babies case (Irish: Cás Leanaí Chiarraí) was a 1984 investigation by An Garda Síochána in County Kerry, Ireland, into the killing of a newborn baby, known as Baby John, and the alleged killing of another. The case has been the subject of intense media interest in Ireland and abroad in the following decades. It was the subject of a 3-part 2023 Channel 4 documentary Murdered: The Baby On The Beach, which was broadcast throughout the United Kingdom. The mother who concealed the second baby, Joanne Hayes, was arrested and charged with the murder of Baby John, of which she was wrongly thought to be the mother.
The Gardaí were forced to drop the charges six months later and a tribunal of inquiry (the "Kerry Babies Tribunal") was launched. Its report was highly critical of numerous failings in the Garda investigation, and it also concluded that Hayes had given birth to a live baby boy who died that night and whose birth was concealed. Hayes has disputed these findings and no charges were pressed.
The parents of Baby John were identified by DNA after their arrests in 2023. A Garda file was sent to the DPP in 2026 but no charges have yet been filed. Their solicitor had complained repeatedly about their treatment but has said nothing about Baby John.
In 2020, the Irish State formally apologised after 36 years to Joanne Hayes for wrongly accusing her of the murder and for the "appalling hurt and distress caused". The state consented to the making of the declarations by the High Court that all findings of wrongdoing made against them by the Tribunal were "unfounded and incorrect" and that their arrest and prosecution had been "unfounded and in breach of their constitutional rights".
On 14 April 1984, a newborn baby boy was found dead with a broken neck and 28 stab wounds. The body was discovered on White Strand, a beach near Caherciveen in the south of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. A woman, Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney, approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, who was known to have been pregnant, was arrested. She and her family confessed to the murder of the baby but later withdrew their confessions and admitted instead that Hayes's baby had been born on the family farm, had died shortly after birth, and had been wrapped in a plastic bag and buried on the farm in secret. Initially, An Garda Síochána, the police force in the Republic of Ireland, conducted a half-hearted search and declared that no body had been found and that the family's confessions were the true account of what had happened. It was only when a more thorough search was conducted that the body of a baby boy was discovered on the farm.
Tests showed that this baby had the same blood type, type O, as Hayes and the baby's (married) father, Jeremiah Locke. However, the baby on the beach had blood group A. The Gardaí nevertheless insisted that Hayes had become pregnant simultaneously by two different men (through heteropaternal superfecundation) and had given birth to both children, killing the one found on the beach. Another theory put forward was that the baby's blood type had changed due to decomposition.
Hayes was charged with murder, but the charge was thrown out by a judge, and the Kerry Babies Tribunal, headed by Mr Justice Kevin Lynch, was set up to investigate the behaviour of the Gardaí in the case. Mr Justice Lynch found that Joanne Hayes killed the baby on the farm by choking it to stop it crying, despite state pathologist Dr John Harbison's inability to determine the cause of death. Judge Lynch rejected claims by the Hayes family that they had been assaulted by Gardaí and that the confessions were obtained through coercion. Joanne Hayes had claimed that Gardaí slapped, threatened, and coerced her into making a false confession, and other family members had alleged that Gardaí used harassment and physical intimidation to get false confessions. Gene Kerrigan commented in 2006, "In the opinion of some, the report never convincingly explained how people who were entirely innocent of any involvement whatever in stabbing a baby should make very detailed confessions that fitted into the facts of the baby found on the beach." The case was also noteworthy for having a psychiatrist admit under oath that the definition of sociopath he had used to describe Joanne Hayes in his testimony would apply to "about half the population of the country".
The case raised serious questions about the culture of the Garda Síochána, and the treatment of unmarried mothers in Irish society. Journalist Nell McCafferty's book about the case was titled A Woman to Blame. Joanne Hayes co-wrote a book with John Barrett about her experience called My Story. Four Gardaí on the case took legal action against the authors and publishers of the book, as well as shops that sold it. They received out-of-court settlements totalling over €127,000.
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Kerry babies case
The Kerry babies case (Irish: Cás Leanaí Chiarraí) was a 1984 investigation by An Garda Síochána in County Kerry, Ireland, into the killing of a newborn baby, known as Baby John, and the alleged killing of another. The case has been the subject of intense media interest in Ireland and abroad in the following decades. It was the subject of a 3-part 2023 Channel 4 documentary Murdered: The Baby On The Beach, which was broadcast throughout the United Kingdom. The mother who concealed the second baby, Joanne Hayes, was arrested and charged with the murder of Baby John, of which she was wrongly thought to be the mother.
The Gardaí were forced to drop the charges six months later and a tribunal of inquiry (the "Kerry Babies Tribunal") was launched. Its report was highly critical of numerous failings in the Garda investigation, and it also concluded that Hayes had given birth to a live baby boy who died that night and whose birth was concealed. Hayes has disputed these findings and no charges were pressed.
The parents of Baby John were identified by DNA after their arrests in 2023. A Garda file was sent to the DPP in 2026 but no charges have yet been filed. Their solicitor had complained repeatedly about their treatment but has said nothing about Baby John.
In 2020, the Irish State formally apologised after 36 years to Joanne Hayes for wrongly accusing her of the murder and for the "appalling hurt and distress caused". The state consented to the making of the declarations by the High Court that all findings of wrongdoing made against them by the Tribunal were "unfounded and incorrect" and that their arrest and prosecution had been "unfounded and in breach of their constitutional rights".
On 14 April 1984, a newborn baby boy was found dead with a broken neck and 28 stab wounds. The body was discovered on White Strand, a beach near Caherciveen in the south of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. A woman, Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney, approximately 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, who was known to have been pregnant, was arrested. She and her family confessed to the murder of the baby but later withdrew their confessions and admitted instead that Hayes's baby had been born on the family farm, had died shortly after birth, and had been wrapped in a plastic bag and buried on the farm in secret. Initially, An Garda Síochána, the police force in the Republic of Ireland, conducted a half-hearted search and declared that no body had been found and that the family's confessions were the true account of what had happened. It was only when a more thorough search was conducted that the body of a baby boy was discovered on the farm.
Tests showed that this baby had the same blood type, type O, as Hayes and the baby's (married) father, Jeremiah Locke. However, the baby on the beach had blood group A. The Gardaí nevertheless insisted that Hayes had become pregnant simultaneously by two different men (through heteropaternal superfecundation) and had given birth to both children, killing the one found on the beach. Another theory put forward was that the baby's blood type had changed due to decomposition.
Hayes was charged with murder, but the charge was thrown out by a judge, and the Kerry Babies Tribunal, headed by Mr Justice Kevin Lynch, was set up to investigate the behaviour of the Gardaí in the case. Mr Justice Lynch found that Joanne Hayes killed the baby on the farm by choking it to stop it crying, despite state pathologist Dr John Harbison's inability to determine the cause of death. Judge Lynch rejected claims by the Hayes family that they had been assaulted by Gardaí and that the confessions were obtained through coercion. Joanne Hayes had claimed that Gardaí slapped, threatened, and coerced her into making a false confession, and other family members had alleged that Gardaí used harassment and physical intimidation to get false confessions. Gene Kerrigan commented in 2006, "In the opinion of some, the report never convincingly explained how people who were entirely innocent of any involvement whatever in stabbing a baby should make very detailed confessions that fitted into the facts of the baby found on the beach." The case was also noteworthy for having a psychiatrist admit under oath that the definition of sociopath he had used to describe Joanne Hayes in his testimony would apply to "about half the population of the country".
The case raised serious questions about the culture of the Garda Síochána, and the treatment of unmarried mothers in Irish society. Journalist Nell McCafferty's book about the case was titled A Woman to Blame. Joanne Hayes co-wrote a book with John Barrett about her experience called My Story. Four Gardaí on the case took legal action against the authors and publishers of the book, as well as shops that sold it. They received out-of-court settlements totalling over €127,000.