WATERFORD (IRELAND)
The Journal [Dublin, Ireland]
September 24, 2023
The Commission of Investigation concluded its first public hearings this week with new light thrown on the case.
In its second week sitting in public, the Commission of Investigation examining an alleged child abuse cover-up in Waterford city heard new details around how State agencies and political figures handled the scandal.
The commission is looking at whether convicted sex offender Bill Kenneally, who is currently in prison for the abuse of 15 boys, could have been stopped much sooner than he was.
Across this week’s three lengthy hearings in the Dispute Resolution Centre in Dublin’s Law Library, filled with survivors and their family members, the commission heard:
- There may be twice as many victims of the sports coach as was previously known
- A former Fianna Fáíl TD, who was a cousin of the sex offender, denied being aware of his cousin’s abuse of children in the 1980s
- That same TD admitted he “maybe was wrong” not to have notified authorities about his relative’s abuse
- Actions by senior gardaí and health officials “did not stand up to scrutiny”, according to a leading child protection expert.
Former Waterford TD and one-time Minister of State Brendan Kenneally denied that his cousin’s assaults on children were a family secret known by many relations, and insisted that he was in “total shock” when he realised his own father had known.
He also denied allegations made by one victim that he knowingly placed him in the same hotel room as Bill Kenneally at a basketball tournament in Cork in the 1980s, and mocked the victim after he was “brutally” assaulted by the sports coach.
The commission is examining allegations of collusion between An Garda Síochána, the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, the former South Eastern Health Board, Basketball Ireland, and unnamed “political figures”.
Survivors of Kenneally’s abuse believe Kenneally could have been arrested and charged at a far earlier stage.
As part of its work, the inquiry is examining separate garda investigations in 1987 and 2012.
Gardaí have confirmed they were aware of the abuse in 1987 but decided not to proceed with any charge following discussions with the sports coach.
1980s investigation
Former acting chief superintendent Sean Cashman, who oversaw the 1987 investigation, has previously insisted that there was “no cover-up” and that gardaí did the best they could do at the time, instead receiving assurances from Kenneally that he would seek medical help.
He has also pointed to an unwillingness for victims to come forward to make a formal complaint.
The commission, which was established in 2018, had been required to sit in private ever since due to a criminal trial against Bill Kenneally.
When this ended in May, resulting in a further conviction and lengthened prison sentence for abuse of five more victims, the commission was able to move into the public domain.
In its first week, covered by The Journal here, it heard about how Bill Kenneally’s abuse came to light and saw journalists provide evidence on their work on the controversy.
Here, we take a look at what happened this week at the commission overseen by Mr Justice Michael White.
Each day centred around one witness: the lead investigator for the first successful prosecution of Bill Kenneally in 2016, a child protection expert, and the former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally.
Monday
Anthony Pettit, who is now the chief superintendent of Waterford and Carlow-Kilkenny Division, told the Commission of Investigation that a recent garda review of the case saw them conclude that there are at least 29 victims of Kenneally, if not more.
This means there are twice as many victims than are currently on the record. Kenneally is serving two separate jail sentences for abuse of 15 boys.
Pettit outlined to the commission how gardaí arrived at that figure, having taken 150 witness statements across three separate investigations.
The latter investigation included a cohort of men who decided not to pursue court proceedings against Kenneally, but who gardaí are “satisfied” were sexually abused according to Pettit.
Out of a grouping of 20 additional witnesses identified by investigators, Petitt believes some “may have been subject to abuse” by Kenneally.
He told the inquiry that other people who were approached by gardaí were either “unable or declined to make statements”.
Pettit told the commission of a further group of potential witnesses, one of whom had received rape crisis counselling while informing gardaí they were not a victim of abuse.
Following the delivery of Pettit’s report, Mr Justice White asked the superintendent whether he felt it was one of the “most serious cases of paedophilia” seen in Ireland. Pettit agreed with the judge’s characterisation of the case.
Defence of garda investigation
Pettit also defended how gardaí approached information related to Bill Kenneally’s cousin, former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally, when they investigated the case in the 2010s.
The investigation was kickstarted by the testimony of Jason Clancy, who made a formal complaint to gardaí and provided them with names of other suspected victims.
Kenneally pleaded guilty to the abuse of Clancy and nine other men when all were boys in the 1980s.
Under cross-examination by Barra McGrory, barrister for one group of victims represented by Phoenix Law, Pettit was asked whether gardaí should have done more with information about when Brendan Kenneally knew of his cousin’s abuse.
Brendan Kenneally was approached by a victim’s wife in 2002 and, according to a statement the woman gave gardaí in 2016, the former TD told her he had already been “dealing” with gardaí on his cousin’s abuse of children.
McGrory said there was a “contradiction” as the woman’s statement appeared to show that Brendan Kenneally knew about his cousin earlier than claimed.
Asked why gardaí didn’t do more with the information, Pettit said that if Brendan Kenneally had in “some way convinced” any victims not to go to gardaí, then “I think we’re in an issue, but it appears clear that the victims didn’t want to go the gardaí”.
When asked by the barrister whether he was “suspicious of Brendan Kenneally in terms of withholding information”, Pettit said that phrasing was “too strong”.
He added that gardaí should have been informed in 2002.
“I have to be careful here because I’m viewing this in hindsight 20 years on, but yes, he [Brendan Kenneally] should have come forward,” Pettit said.
Tuesday
This week’s second hearing delved into not just Bill Kenneally and his methods as an abuser, but also whether authorities could have put a stop to him much sooner.
Kieran McGrath, a child protection expert who was asked by the commission to provide findings on Kenneally, described how Kenneally carried out abuse that was “ritualistic and sadistic”, and “indicative of psychopathy”.
McGrath had helped devise child protection policies in the 1980s at what he said was a time of “major advances” in Ireland.
The new approach would see State agencies required to cooperate and share information on child sexual abuse allegations in a bid to prevent “solo runs” by authorities.
But McGrath said he felt that, having studied evidence by gardaí, the South Eastern Health Board and victims, that the actions of authorities in the Kenneally case in 1987 did “not stand up to scrutiny”.
Noting guidelines that were introduced five months earlier that year, McGrath said that Superintendent Sean Cashman, who interviewed Bill Kenneally after receiving reports of child abuse by the sports coach in 1987, was aware that boys were being tied up and handcuffed – but did not attempt to progress a criminal case against Kenneally.
McGrath criticised gardaí and the former South Eastern Health Board for a “lack of professional cooperation” and a “misuse of discretionary powers” in how senior figures handled disclosures of sexual abuse.
He said it resulted in “very serious consequences” for victims as Kenneally continued what he described as “ritualistic” and “sadistic” sexual abuse of several boys.
McGrath also alleged there was a “missed opportunity” to apprehend the offender in 1985 when a 14-year-old-boy went to Waterford Garda Station to tell a guard manning the desk that Kenneally was abusing him, only to be told to leave and return with an adult.
Seamus Clarke, a barrister representing An Garda Síochána, said that guidelines were evolving at a “fairly fast pace” in the 1980s.
He pointed to how literature produced by child sexual abuse researchers at the time showed that it was mainly “beangardaí” – female members – who were tasked with interviews of victims.
McGrath agreed with Clarke when asked if it meant that male gardaí “might not necessarily have been trained up” for such cases.
‘Wider society’ role
His evidence also saw a question about the role of “wider society” in Waterford and the surrounding area in the 1980s.
Mr Justice White asked whether others had a role to play in stopping Bill Kenneally from abusing more children, pointing to how “a lot of people knew what was going on in genuine circumstances”.
The judge said that by 1988 this included Cashman, his inspector PJ Hayes, the principal of a secondary school and a number of parents. He noted that one victim’s mother “informed other parents”, while “definitely” not wanting a formal complaint made by her family.
He noted further evidence that “certain gardaí were suspicious” of the sports coach.
Despite this “underbelly of knowledge” in Waterford, children remained “defenceless”, Mr Justice White said.
This was due to the “entrenched nature” of Kenneally’s paedophilia, with “very little happening” to apprehend him.
Responding to the judge’s points, McGrath said that the situation “places greater responsibility on people with professional roles”.
He said that ordinary parents and citizens will often say they’re “out of our depth” in such an issue, and are therefore “waiting for somebody else to do something”.
“I think that’s why there’s a responsibility on people who are paid by the State to protect others. That’s what makes the job stressful, that’s what makes the job difficult.”
He alleged: “At that time, there was enough basis for the protagonists in this to work together to achieve a better outcome, even if the parents were unsure of what to do.”
Wednesday
In front of a packed hearing on Wednesday, ranging from barristers to victims and their families, former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally told the inquiry that he accepts he “maybe was wrong” not to inform gardaí about child abuse allegations regarding his cousin Bill Kenneally.
In evidence, Brendan Kenneally denied that he had concealed his cousin’s abuse of children to protect any “political ambitions” and said that it was not a “family secret”.
He further denied being aware of his cousin’s abuse of children in the 1980s, after one victim alleged to the inquiry that Brendan Kenneally had knowingly placed him in the same bedroom as the sex offender during an overnight stay at a basketball tournament and mocked him after he was “brutally molested”.
Brendan Kenneally said he had previously thought that “gardaí couldn’t have progressed anything with the information I had” about his relative’s abuse of children.
“Now maybe I was wrong to have done that,” Brendan Kenneally said.
The 67-year-old, who was a TD for Waterford in two stints ranging from 1989 to 2011, said he was contacted by a woman in 2001 who met him at his constituency office in the city.
He told chairman Mr Justice Michael White that the woman disclosed that her partner had been abused as a boy by Bill Kenneally – as had another boy, who she named to the politician.
She outlined that her partner had been “stripped” and “tied to a tree” and left alone for a period of time.
A polaroid photograph was also taken of the boy by Bill Kenneally which was “immediately developed” to be shown to the victim.
This man came forward as a victim almost 20 years later, the commission heard.
‘Explicitly told’
“I was told explicitly not to go near the guards,” Brendan Kenneally said of the conversation with the woman. He added that her priority in telling him was to ensure that no other children were in danger.
Brendan Kenneally insisted he was not “sweeping it under the carpet” and later added that “in hindsight” he “probably” didn’t do enough with the information received.
“I probably didn’t do enough. I accept that but I didn’t think I had enough evidence to go to anyone at the time,” he said.
He said he did undertake to “make sure other children, more children, weren’t molested in any way” by his cousin and enquired as to whether he was involved with coaching children at a basketball club in the city. He said he was informed by the head juvenile basketball coach at the club – who has since died – that his cousin was not involved.
Brendan Kenneally was also asked about a basketball tournament in Cork in the early 1980s.
Ercus Stewart, for the Commission, put forward one victim’s evidence who said that he was excited to go to the tournament as it would see “professional, real deal basketball players” from the UK and Ireland competing against each other.
Brendan and Bill Kenneally, who were founding members of a Waterford basketball club, were in charge of pairing people together for an overnight stay, the victim alleged.
The man previously told the commission that Brendan Kenneally was “laughing and smirking” when he told him that he would be “staying with Billy” that night.
“At that stage I was like, ‘No’,” the man told the commission in earlier evidence read aloud today.
“I knew what was coming … I wanted to go to Cork because the last thing I expected to happen was to be abused that weekend because there’d be so many adults around that weekend.”
The victim, now in his 50s, says he was “brutally molested” that night and “hundreds of photos” were taken by Kenneally.
The next morning, he says Brendan Kenneally came up to him and allegedly said “hope you had fun last night”. The victim believes this showed that Brendan Kenneally knew.
Brendan Kenneally denied the claim and said he had no recollection of it, including any memory of the boy at the time.
He said juveniles were not brought on overnight trips and that he wasn’t on overnight trips at that time.
He agreed that if juveniles were brought on any trip, “they may be placed in a room with an adult” but denied that the interactions as claimed by the victim had ever taken place.
What comes next
The commission’s first module to be held in public ended on Wednesday, although the judge said that Brendan Kenneally will be called back for further cross-examination. Around 12 remaining witnesses are also due to appear.
This is not expected until at least next month, with Bill Kenneally also in line to give evidence about interactions with the various groups mentioned in the commission’s terms of reference.
Last May, the sports coach received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing five boys on unknown dates between December 1979 and March 1990. He was aged between his 20s and 40s when carrying out the abuse.
The 72-year-old accountant, from Laragh, Summerville Avenue, Waterford, had already been serving a 14-year sentence for abusing ten boys from 1984 to 1987.