Gardai have apologised to a woman at the centre of the long running Kerry Babies murder investigation after DNA tests proved she was not the mother of a baby found on a beach more than 33 years ago.
Joanne Hayes received her verbal and written apology form acting Garda Commissioner, Dónall Ó Cualáin.
Details of the apology emerged during a press conference in Co Kerry yesterday when Gardai announced that the investigation into the child’s death would “start from scratch”.
The original investigation was launched after the body of a five-day old baby, known as ‘baby John’, was found with multiple stab wounds on White Strand in Caherciveen on April 14, 1984.
Joanne Hayes, who was from Abbeydorney, in Co Kerry, was later identified as a suspect.
Known to be pregnant she and her family later confessed to the child’s murder.
However, they withdrew their confession and claimed they were initially coerced by gardai.
Ms Hayes had given birth to a baby boy, who died shortly afterwards and his body was found on the family farm.
Charges against Ms Hayes were later dropped.
A tribunal into the Kerry Babies case previously found that Ms Hayes could not have been the mother of ‘Baby John’, a finding now bolstered through DNA testing.
Superintendent Flor Murphy said Ms Hayes had been informed of the DNA results.
“On behalf of An Garda Síochána, I would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Hayes for that, as well as the awful stress and pain she has been put through as a result of the original investigation into this matter, which fell well short of the required standards.”
