The solicitor for the couple arrested on suspicion of the murder of Baby John in Kerry today insists: “They’re totally innocent.”
And, speaking to the Irish Mirror following their release without charge last week, lawyer Padraig O’Connell said: “There is no case to meet.”
Gardai declined to comment on Mr O’Connell’s assertions last night.
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Mr O’Connell said he would now welcome a quick decision by State prosecutors on whether his clients are to face any charges over the discovery of Baby John’s lifeless body on a beach in Cahersiveen in April 1984 – a find that sparked the Kerry Babies scandal.
He also said he fully believed that the State prosecutors would exonerate his clients, which would mean they would not be charged with any offence.
Gardai released the pair late on Thursday and early on Friday from Castleisland Garda station and are now preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will examine it and decide if anyone should be charged.
Sources have told us that it could be anything between six months to a year before such a decision is made but
Mr O’Connell, who himself did not comment on any time frame, said that he wanted it sooner rather than later.
He said: “I believe it will be a considerable period before the DPP comes back.
“And in the meantime my clients are in a very difficult situation on a personal basis and I would welcome an early decision by the DPP as I believe it will totally exonerate my clients.”
The pair, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s, were arrested by gardai in Co Kerry on Thursday on suspicion of the murder of Baby John, a five-day-old boy whose body had 28 stab wounds when it was found.
The initial investigation into Baby John’s death in 1984 saw gardai drawing up a list of pregnant women who had either left the county or had not appeared to have a new-born infant.
Gardai then focused on Joanne Hayes, who was at the time living in Abbeydorney, around 80km away.
She was arrested by the Garda murder squad and was accused wrongly of being the mother of Baby John – whose family members were accused of concealing the birth of the tot. None of that was true and all charges were dropped later that year.
And in 2020 Ms Hayes received a formal apology from the State and a settlement of €2.5million.
A court also heard that Ms Hayes had given birth to a baby boy, that was named Shane, on April 13, 1984 on the family farm. The child then died of natural causes and was buried on the farmland.
The deaths of the two babies and the arrest of Ms Hayes soon became known as the Kerry Babies affair – a scandal which still resonates in the county today. In 2018, the Garda Serious Crime Review Team, which is part of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, took a fresh look at the case, and in 2021 they exhumed the remains of Baby John from a cemetery in Cahersiveen.
That saw a DNA profile of the baby raised and led to last week’s dramatic developments, when the man and woman were arrested on suspicion of murder.
It’s understood they were arrested after a relative was one of a number of people who provided DNA voluntarily to gardai in the Kerry area in recent years over the Baby John probe.
Mr O’Connell yesterday told us that the arrested pair themselves provided a DNA sample voluntarily to gardai after their arrest and he was now awaiting the results.
When asked how his clients were after their questioning and release, Mr O’Connell replied: “Shell-shocked.”
He added: “There’s no justification for the arrest, no justification for detaining them for 24 hours. There
is no case to meet.
“They’re totally innocent. And they are totally and absolutely revulsed by the allegation that they murdered a child.”
He added: “Part of the reason that I went as their mouthpiece to so speak was because of my own professional concerns at the entire scenario that has evolved.
“A knock at the door and next thing they are held for 24 hours each and there is a siege almost outside Castleisland Garda station when the lady comes out.
“She is being driven by a solicitor from my office and she’s had to run the gauntlet of photographers and cameramen, who have now taken her photograph and filmed her.
“And she’s never (been) prosecuted for anything and all that is on the record forever. Can anyone justify that?”
When asked was it possible for the man and woman to get back to a normal life after the arrests, Mr O’Connell replied: “How can it be? These are two people who have never been in a Garda station in their lives, never as much as got a parking ticket, never had got penalty points.
“They are in gainful employment, they are pillars of the community.
“How can they go back to work? How can they go back to normal living?
“How can their children go back to normal living? How can the extended family go back to normal living?
“They can’t.”
He did, however, say that there was no consideration at this stage for the man and woman taking a civil case against gardai. And he added: “If you arrest somebody on the basis that you are matching their DNA, does that automatically equate that they are guilty of murder?
“To any right-thinking person it doesn’t.”
When contacted over Mr O’Connell’s statements, a Garda spokesman said: “An Garda Siochana does not comment on remarks made by third parties.”
And he repeated the force’s call for witnesses to come forward. He said: “Every line of enquiry identified or
developed during the investigation
has and will continue to be thoroughly investigated.
“The investigation into the death of Baby John is continuing and a file will
be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“An Garda Siochana continues to appeal to any person with information to contact Killarney Garda station (064) 667 1160 the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.”
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