Kerry Babies

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The Kerry Babies case is an unsolved murder case dating from 1984 in Kerry, Ireland, that dominated the Irish headlines for some months during that year and resulted in a public Tribunal of Inquiry into the behaviour of the Garda Síochána during the investigation.

On 14 April 1984, a newborn baby boy was found stabbed to death on White Strand beach at Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry. A local woman, Joanne Hayes from Abbeydorney, who was known to have been pregnant, was arrested and she and her family confessed to the murder of the baby. However, they 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. Tests showed that the baby whose body was found on the farm had the same blood type – A – as Hayes and its (married) father, Jeremiah Locke. However, the baby on the beach had blood group O. 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.^[1]

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. Judge Lynch found that Joanne Hayes murdered the baby on the farm by choking it to stop it crying, in spite of state pathologist Dr John Harbison being unable to determine the cause of death.^[1] The judge rejected claims by the Hayes family that they had been assaulted by gardaí, or that the confessions were obtained through coercion. The report of the Tribunal did not explain how Joanne Hayes and her family came to make confessions containing identical details of events that never happened.^[2]

The case raised serious questions about the the culture of the Garda Síochana, 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 the episode 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.^[3]^[4]

In the aftermath of the case the murder squad was disbanded, and the four gardaí assigned to desk duties, in what was seen as a demotion. In 2004, Joanne Hayes offered to undergo DNA testing to establish that she was not the mother of the baby on the beach.^[5] However, one of the officers on the case, Gerry O'Carroll, has also sought such tests, saying that he believes the tests will prove the superfecundation theory correct. This testing has apparently not yet been carried out.

The parents of the baby on the beach and its murderer have never been identified.