A STATE INQUIRY examining how State agencies handled child abuse complaints about Bill Kenneally has seen its chairman criticise the convicted sex offender for “attempting to minimise” what he did to his victims.
The comments arose after Kenneally had refused to accept he had enacted a “campaign of abuse” on victims, saying that claims of grooming were “exaggerated” and questioning “why it took 30 years” for victims to come forward about the abuse.
Speaking as tensions rose during today’s hearing in the Law Library in Dublin, the chairman – retired High Court Judge Michael White – said he did not want the inquiry to be “turned into a circus”.
He later said: “It was being treated as a bit of a circus this morning by Mr Kenneally – I’m not having that, straight up.”
The Commission of Investigation was formed to examine how State agencies and organisations handled reports of his crimes.
Kenneally, now 73, is currently serving two prison terms for abusing 15 boys between the years 1979 and 1990. He was first jailed in 2016.
Kenneally, who has been appearing before the commission this week, has sparked sharp intakes of breath from survivors and their families in the room, often laughing as he responded to queries about the case.
Kenneally claimed today that his “constitutional rights” were in danger of being breached by questions from counsel about how the abuse took place. He said that probing these matters was against the terms of the reference for the inquiry.
Responding to Kenneally’s claims, Mr Justice White said that the convicted sex offender “knows exactly what’s going on here” and stressed that his rights have been “perfectly guaranteed” by the commission.
He added that there was an “attempt to minimise issues which are relevant” to the commission.
When asked by senior counsel representing one group of survivors, Barra McGrory for Phoenix Law, if he would accept that he had committed a “campaign of abuse”, Kenneally denied this.
He claimed that one victim had “wanted to be part of it” and further refused to accept that he had “ruined the lives” of some boys he had preyed upon.
Kenneally also said that when he admitted to senior gardaí that he had abused six boys during a 1987 Garda investigation, both gardaí responded with “relief” when he told them that he hadn’t committed sodomy against the victims.
This view was echoed in a 2016 report Mr Justice White read from to address Kenneally’s crimes against his victims.
The report, carried out by a Dr Nicholas Banks when Kenneally was first sentenced in 2016, found that Kenneally believed the abuse was “more acceptable because it wasn’t penetrative”.
The gardaí who interviewed Kenneally in 1987 were the then Acting Chief Superintendent Sean Cashman and Inspector PJ Hayes.
Cashman hasn’t had a chance to respond to today’s claims. He has previously told the tribunal that gardaí sought to address Kenneally’s crimes as best as they could, claiming that no family wanted to pursue a case at the time.
Hayes is now deceased.
Discussing the crimes he committed, Kenneally said that “society in general” was different in the 1980s. As society came to view sexual assaults as a “serious crime”, it “helped me want to get out of it”, Kenneally added.
The commission heard testimony from two victims about their treatment by Kenneally.
Ray Motherway, a barrister representing a separate group of survivors, urged Kenneally to “have a bit of respect” for the now adult man who was in the room.
“This man viewed you as an uncle. You groomed him, bought him Manchester United jerseys,” Motherway said.
“He’s in this room, I urge you to watch what you say. He looked up to you.”
Other testimony, read aloud by McGrory, recalled one boy’s experiences of abuse by Kenneally.
The man had previously told the inquiry in a private session that he had pleaded with Kenneally to “stop” as he assaulted him.
“He kept pulling on a string and as he is pulling on the string it is digging into my legs, cutting… at this part I start crying.
“…I’m told to shut up because the neighbours might hear. Meanwhile he is laughing through all of this.”
When McGrory asked if “those are the words of a boy who wanted you to do this”, Kenneally declined to answer.
At the conclusion of today’s hearing, Mr Justice White said the inquiry will return after Easter.
Kenneally will be cross-examined by legal representatives for An Garda Síochána when it resumes.
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