Woman at centre of garda dig for baby ‘owed explanation’
The woman claims the dead baby was one of two children to whom she gave birth in the 1970s as a result of being sexually abused as a child.
Unconfirmed reports also emerged yesterday that a third member of her family - a younger sister - had died tragically in recent months. It is claimed this woman killed herself and left a detailed note, now in the hands of gardaí, alleging she was also sexually abused as a child.
Solicitor Gerry Dunne, representing the woman, yesterday said his client needed answers from the State. “The State owes to her an explanation for everything that has happened in the last 32 years in her life, commencing with abuse some four years earlier.”
The woman told gardaí in 1994 and 1995 that she was sexually abused as a child and provided officers with her attackers’ identities.
She also told them that she was the mother of a baby girl who was savagely murdered after birth and dumped in a back lane in Dún Laoghaire, south Dublin, in April 1973.
The woman, who was aged 11 at the time, identified the murderer to gardaí.
She also gave gardaí information that around 1976, when she was 15, she gave birth to a still-born baby boy who was buried in the back garden of her childhood home in Dalkey, south Dublin. Despite detailed garda investigations at the time, involving the arrest of the key suspects, the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled there was insufficient evidence to pursue prosecutions for sexual abuse or murder.
Gardaí decided not to dig up the garden in 1995, after expert advice indicated no forensic evidence could be gleaned from any remains there for nearly 20 years. A former legal adviser to the mother and ex-Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter, described as “incomprehensible” the decision not to dig the garden in 1995.
Mr Shatter also said that, despite legitimate difficulties, gardaí should have taken a DNA sample from the murdered baby girl.
On Monday, gardaí decided to begin excavating the garden, although they stressed that there was no certainty that a baby was buried there.
A statement from O’Brien Dunne solicitors said that their client had suffered “the most serious abuse” from the age of about seven.
“This abuse, which continued for many years, was carried out by various people, leading to the birth of two children, Noleen and John, when our client was aged 11 and 15 respectively.” O’Brien Dunne solicitors said their client had been attempting to obtain justice for many years.
They said they were grateful to Dublin County Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty who had agreed - following representations from them - to reopen the inquest into Noleen’s death.
“We will continue to press for wide-ranging enquiries, as appropriate,” the statement said.
