Bill Kenneally denies getting 'special treatment' due to his prominent political family

The convicted child abuser said that the gardaí should have prosecuted him in the 1980s.

Bill Kenneally (pictured) said he had had his “arm twisted”, first by his cousin Brendan Kenneally who had been appointed a junior minister, to take on a city councillor position in Brendan’s stead in or around 1993, and that he would have been guaranteed the mayorship “within two years” if he had done so.

Convicted child abuser Bill Kenneally has said he doesn’t believe he received “special treatment” due to hailing from a prominent political family when avoiding prosecution for child abuse in the 1980s.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kenneally told the commission of investigation into the handling of his abuse by State agencies prior to his conviction that it “wouldn’t be unusual for there to be a warning first” in terms of someone who had transgressed in the way he did.

Kenneally, whose cousin and uncle were both Fianna Fail TDs, had been interviewed by two senior gardaí in Waterford in December 1987 regarding his abuse of at least six local boys, but had avoided prosecution for those crimes for a further 25 years.

He insisted that the fact he hadn’t faced charges “wasn’t special treatment” adding that in his opinion “everyone would feel entitled to be treated that way”.

Asked by counsel for the victims, Barra McGrory, if he hadn’t been treated in that manner “because you were a Kenneally”, Kenneally replied “no, it was because I was a citizen of Ireland”.

He denied that his family had been in a position of power locally, saying to Mr McGrory: “I think you’re trying to make something out of that”.

He said that he had been “living under a shadow” for 35 years not knowing if he would eventually face prosecution. “I lived with this risk for 30 years. You live with this shadow for the rest of your life,” he said.

He said that his last interaction with gardaí prior to his house being searched in December 2012 was with his friend, Garda Sean Barry, in March 1988, an encounter he said had upset him as the situation was one he had been “trying to get out of”.

Asked had Garda Barry asked him about his interest in young boys, Kenneally replied: “He was more like ‘we’re watching you, (so) don’t’.” 

Kenneally said he had had his “arm twisted”, first by his cousin Brendan Kenneally who had been appointed a junior minister, to take on a city councillor position in Brendan’s stead in or around 1993, and that he would have been guaranteed the mayorship “within two years” if he had done so.

While having little interest in politics, he said he declined the offer due to the “risk of my history blowing up”. He agreed that in taking the job he would have significantly raised his profile, replying “and that I did not want”.

Under questioning by Mr McGrory as to the search of his house in 2012, Kenneally said that, while there had been photographic evidence of his abuse of the boys, it had mostly been destroyed in the early 1990s.

He said the photos had been taken “for the thrill” and for his own “gratification”.

He agreed that when arrested by gardaí in May 2013 he had told them that he had been previously interviewed, and admitted his guilt, regarding the abuse in 1987, an act which equated to his having “thrown the hand grenade” at the situation.

Kenneally said that despite “becoming more and more confident” as time passed following his 1987 Garda interview that he would evade prosecution, he had always had “a guilty conscience” because of the abuse he had carried out.

He said, however, that the gardaí should have prosecuted him in the 1980s. “If they were going to deal with it they should have dealt with it at the time,” he said.