Pat Kenny told how he was shocked when gardai quizzed him about his sexuality during their investigation into the 1982 murder of RTE set designer Charles Self.
The former Late Late Show host claims he was bluntly asked by officers if he was gay while they were conducting an investigation into the murder of Charles.
Scottish native Charles was a talented RTE set designer who worked with Pat Kenny when he presented the Late Late Show. Charles had also created the set for Twink’s Christmas special in 1981.
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The 32-year-old was brutally murdered in his south Dublin home at Annesley Mews in Monkstown on January 21, 1982. He was stabbed 14 times. Forty years later, the person responsible for his death remains a mystery.
Pat has now revealed his shock interaction with gardai as they began their investigations into Charles’ violent murder – with officers asking him about his own sexuality.
He said: “I got a phone call sometime after the investigation had started, weeks I would think. The guards identified themselves and said ‘look, we’re investigating the murder of Charles Self. Were you acquainted with him?’
“I said, ‘yes, I was. Why are you calling me?’ and they said, ‘well we are going through his contacts book and we’re going through every name and now we have come to the K’s and Kenny is there under K or words to that effect so we’re calling you.’
“I said, ‘that’s fine’ and they said, ‘were you ever in the Mews in Monkstown?’ and I said ‘No I never was’. That is where his body is found, where he lived.
“And they said, ‘How well did you know him’ and I explained that he was a designer on the show and that would be the reason for my name being in his contact book.
“1982 – no mobile phones so everyone had to contact each other by landline and that’s how it was…
“So, they go to me and they said ‘look, we would love to come around and talk to you sometime about your contact with Charles Self' and they said ‘where do you live?’ And I said The Mews to the rear of number 82 Leinster Road, which is where I lived.
“And there was a silence when they heard ‘Mews’ and then they heard me saying that I lived in a mews and this made some uncanny contact in the Garda mind so they said ‘we’ll be around shortly, will you be there?’ I said ‘sure.’
“I’d say within an hour they were knocking on my door,” he told Frank Greaney on his podcast, Inside The Crime.
Pat said they came in and he offered them tea or coffee and they asked him how well he knew Charles.
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“I explained everything. I couldn’t really help them in any shape or form.
“And then they said, ‘do you mind if we ask you a question?’
“I said ‘no, fire away’. And they said, ‘you wouldn’t happen to be one of them boys yourself, would you?’
“I was shocked and aghast. And also, somewhat amused because by that they meant was I gay.
“I said ‘no I don’t happen to be one of them boys myself.’
“Shortly after that, they left.”
Charles shared a house with RTE presenter Vincent Hanley, who was away at the time of Charles’ death.
After a night out with friends, Charles' body was found the next morning at 9am at the end of the stairs.
He had been stabbed 14 times. There was a slash wound to the throat and a piece of a torn ligature around his neck.
The weapon – an eight-inch kitchen knife with a white handle – had been wielded with such ferocity it had gone right through his body.
As the investigation got under way, the pursuit of gay men as witnesses or suspects became one of the most controversial aspects of the case, affecting the lives of many people who had no connection to the murder.
By Saturday March 20th, 1982, harassment was being reported from members of the gay community to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). Many were not openly gay.
Kader Asmal of the ICCL said at the time, “Something rather odd is emerging. It appears to me that in certain cases there is a desire to draw up a profile on gays in Dublin.”
Eamon Somers, then president of the National Gay Federation (NFG), said people were worried that information gathered by gardaí could be released to civil servants screening job applicants.
In 2008, a review of the case was conducted by Garda Detective Alan Bailey. He concluded that the murder scene may have been "staged" by the killer to divert attention from himself. The case is still open.
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