Kerry Babies: Ex-detective says people should not forget 'brutality inflicted on Baby John' 

Alan Bailey was speaking in the wake of a lengthy file being submitted to the DPP in recent days in relation to the child’s murder

The infant was discovered on the beach at White Strand, Caherciveen on April 14, 1984, with 28 stab wounds. He was named Baby John by the local undertaker at the time. File picture: Don MacMonagle

The former head of the Garda cold case unit has said he hopes people "do not lose sight of the sheer brutality inflicted on Baby John", the Kerry baby who was murdered more than 40 years ago.

Alan Bailey was speaking in the wake of a lengthy file being submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in recent days in relation to the child’s murder.

The DPP will decide if any charges will be brought in relation to the boy’s death.

The infant was discovered on the beach at White Strand, Caherciveen on April 14, 1984, with 28 stab wounds. He was named Baby John by the local undertaker at the time.

The high-profile discovery became known as the “Kerry Babies” case, and led to a State apology over the treatment of a local woman, Joanne Hayes.

Ms Hayes was arrested and charged after Baby John’s body was found in 1984, but the charge was later dropped and a tribunal of inquiry was set up to investigate the handling of her case by gardaí.

Advances in DNA profiling then confirmed Ms Hayes, as she always maintained, was not Baby John’s mother.

In 2018, then-taoiseach Leo Varadkar, justice minister Charlie Flanagan and An Garda Síochána apologised to Ms Hayes.

In March 2023, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s were arrested as part of the investigation but later released without charge.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Bailey described the case as “frightening” and said: “To think of the violence that was visited on that child, an innocent baby who was unprotected. The child was slaughtered.

The timing, the way the country was run back then, all of those things should never take away from what happened to that child. There was no excuse for it.

“I think it is important not to lose that message. This was sheer brutality, and it was frightening, it affected so many people.” 

Baby John was exhumed on September 14, 2021, and the baby’s remains were taken to the morgue at University Hospital Kerry where samples were taken for DNA profiling and he was reinterred that day.

At the same time, a cold case review took place.

Mr Bailey said: “I think the crime itself is why the gardaí have not let it go, and they owe it to the public to bring this to a close.

“There are people who know what happened, there are other people affected, and it has brought so much shame to those affected and the community who buried that child and gave him a name."

Referring to Ms Hayes, Mr Bailey said: “People sat there and said nothing for decades and allowed an innocent woman who lost her own baby to be treated so badly.” 

She herself had lost a baby at the time, however, Ms Hayes was in no way connected to baby John.

“This side show went on for years and nearly destroyed an innocent woman, who had lost a baby, and got the blame for this” said Mr Bailey.

“She was allowed to take the fall and be charged for something she did not do.

What’s worse is people sat back and allowed her to take that blame when they knew what really happened.

“In all my years in the gardaí and cold cases, I never saw anything like that case. It is one that hurt so many people.

“But I do believe there is a reckoning at some stage. There is always. I’ve seen it myself, over the years and I am hoping for closure for the child and justice.

“It is incredible what DNA can do, and it has become a total game-changer in homicide cases like this.

“But Baby John has never left my mind. It is the most savage and brutal case."