Woman in Kerry Babies case agrees to DNA tests in bid to clear name

JOANNE HAYES, the woman at the centre of the Kerry Babies case in 1984, wants modern technology to clear her name.

Through her solicitor, Ms Hayes says she would be happy to use DNA tests to prove one of two dead babies was hers.

She says DNA samples - not available 20 years ago - would prove she was not the mother of a baby boy, stabbed more than 20 times and discovered on Cahirciveen beach on the evening of Saturday, April 14, 1984.

Initially, Ms Hayes and her family admitted the Cahirciveen baby was hers, but retracted their statements when the body of the second baby was found on the farm.

Now 44, Ms Hayes insisted she only gave birth to one baby and, after it died, hid it in a plastic bag in a field near the family home in Abbeydorney.

The case has remained unsolved, despite a tribunal of inquiry headed by Mr Justice Kevin Lynch which sat for 77 days and heard 109 witnesses.

The judge wrote a report which found Ms Hayes had murdered her baby by choking it.

Dr John Harbison, then State pathologist, could not ascertain a cause of death. He could not say for certain that the baby achieved a separate existence.

Judge Lynch found as a fact that the family intended bringing the dead baby to Dingle and throwing it into the sea, but changed their minds.

Retired Det Insp Gerry O’Carroll, who took the “false statement” made by Ms Hayes, has called a number of times for DNA testing on the bodies of the two babies and Ms Hayes.

Mr O’Carroll has always insisted Ms Hayes gave birth to both babies - although the Cahirciveen baby’s blood group did not match hers or that of the father of the Abbeydorney baby.

Hayes family lawyer Patrick Mann says they would agree to DNA tests to resolve the case.

“If it would clarify matters further and, if that is what the people want, then we would have no problem with it at all. None whatsoever,” said Mr Mann.

“If we officially weren’t involved with that child, then one if not two people out there who know all about that child have carried a terrible secret and burden for over 20 years.”

The Kerry Babies case will be featured on Scannal! on RTÉ One tonight at 7.30pm.