LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan
A PSYCHIATRIST HAS disputed a former Fianna Fáil TD’s evidence to a State inquiry that he provided treatment to child sex abuser Bill Kenneally.
Previously, the Commission of Investigation examining how State agencies and organisations handled reports of Kenneally’s crimes heard that a treatment session had been arranged by his cousin and Dáil deputy Brendan Kenneally.
But Richard Horgan and his wife Christine, who was his office manager, today contended that they never treated Kenneally or even met with the man.
In his evidence, Richard Horgan dismissed claims that he had provided a “verbal report” declaring Bill Kenneally “unlikely” to offend again after an apparent session lasting around “15 minutes” at his home.
“You would not come to that conclusion after 15 minutes,” he said. “I wouldn’t come to that conclusion at all.”
Richard Horgan operated his own private practice in Waterford as well as carrying out work for the HSE, before retirement in 2010.
He said he had “no recollection whatsoever” of ever treating Bill Kenneally.
He added that no doctor can guarantee that “a person wouldn’t reoffend”, explaining instead that there are “some people you feel are highly likely and others you feel much less likely” to reoffend.
Formed in 2018 after a campaign by victims, the inquiry is examining whether various agencies and organisations prevented Bill Kenneally getting charged at an earlier stage.
It’s 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”.
A number of survivors of Kenneally’s abuse allege that there was collusion which prevented the sex offender, who was jailed in 2016, from being arrested and charged at a much earlier stage.
Last October, former Waterford TD Brendan Kenneally told the commission that he knew few psychiatrists and believed it was more appropriate to find someone he was familiar with to treat his cousin, allegedly leading him to approach Horgan.
Brendan Kenneally, who was a Minister of State in the early 1990s, told the inquiry at the time that he accepts he may have been “wrong” not to inform gardaí about child abuse allegations regarding his cousin and insisted that he did not conceal his cousin’s abuse of children to protect “political ambitions”.
He claimed he tried to get his cousin help and told the inquiry that he had spoken to Richard Horgan about his cousin in a number of phone calls in late 2001 about his cousin’s progression.
The inquiry heard Brendan Kenneally claim that Horgan had carried out an assessment with Bill Kenneally, which the former TD alleged lasted around “15 minutes”.
It was also alleged by Brendan Kenneally that the session was done for free.
At today’s hearing, Christine Horgan said that she checked back over the now defunct practice’s old files and found “no record” of any meeting with Bill Kenneally or Brendan Kenneally.
When asked if he would have ever agreed to see someone for such a session, Richard Horgan said it was not unusual for someone to approach him seeking help for a relative.
“You’d alway agree to see somebody,” he said, “If it’s a very high risk person you might have to go as far to see the gardaí. If it’s a lower risk person, you might be calling family members or CAMHS [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services].”
Any work would involve him sending a patient to the “appropriate person” if he felt he wasn’t qualified to offer treatment.
“If I felt they were immediate dangers, I would call the gardaí,” he said.
He also said that he would often refer patients back to their GP and “wouldn’t take” the referral.
He further said that he avoided holding a session in his home and would not inform a family member of a relative’s progress in an “informal” manner.
“I’d have a formal clinic because otherwise it can end up in a disaster,” he said.
Health Board
Previously, the commission heard that Bill Kenneally was referred to a South Eastern Health Board psychiatrist following a garda investigation in 1987.
Richard Horgan told the commission that if he had indeed treated Bill Kenneally in 2001, he may have contacted the Health Board consultant to notify him about his former patient.
He added that he knew the psychiatrist, who is now deceased, from his work in Waterford.
Barrister for the commission, Patrick McCann, said that Brendan Kenneally had told the inquiry of discussions between the two about Bill Kenneally’s treatment.
“Brendan Kenneally told the commission that you had given the opinion that Mr Bill Kenneally hadn’t offended in a number of years and was unlikely to offend again,” McCann put to Richard Horgan.
The psychiatrist replied: “That is not a decision I would make on anybody … because everybody has the potential to repeat [offend].”
He agreed when told by commission barrister Patrick McCann that Brendan Kenneally claimed he met the former TD in recent years.
Richard Horgan said this was between 2016 to 2018, which he believed was ahead of the inquiry taking place. He added that he would “be quite taken aback” if the meeting took place in 2001.
Christine Horgan also told the commission that she recalled a meeting taking place around this period between the two at the Horgan home.
Earlier, the inquiry heard from another ex-Fianna Fáil TD, who denied accusations that he received a phone call from a priest aiming to “suppress accusations” about child sexual abuse emerging into the public domain.
Donie Ormonde, who was a TD and senator in the 1980s and early 1990s, told a State inquiry this morning that he “never” heard any comments from Monsignor John Shine aiming to “suppress accusations” about child sexual abuse emerging into the public domain.
“That’s not true, Monsignor Shine never asked me to do anything and even if he did, I was yesterday’s man and wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway,” Ormonde said to the Commission of Investigation today at the Law Library.
The former TD, who was a longtime consultant radiologist in Waterford hospital, further denied that he had described a psychiatrist as “susceptible to political pressure” during a meeting with journalist Damien Tiernan in March 2016.
It was alleged by former RTÉ south east correspondent Damien Tiernan that Shine, who was a parish priest in Tramore, had sought help in 2013 as allegations came to light about his nephew Bill Kenneally.
Last year, Tiernan told the commission of the alleged phone call between Shine and Ormonde.
Kenneally, a former sports coach and Fianna Fáil tallyman, is currently serving two sentences for sexually abusing 15 boys in periods stretching from 1979 to 1990.
The commission has previously heard of Shine’s involvement in handling serious allegations about his nephew and how no further investigation followed on either occasion.
Ormonde and Tiernan’s meeting took place in the car park of the Tower Hotel in Waterford in March 2016, just weeks after Kenneally was convicted of sexual offences against five men when they were boys.
Ormonde, now 80, said he believed the March 2016 conversation with Tiernan was a chance meeting and couldn’t recall whether they had gone to speak in his car, as Tiernan had told the commission.
Last September, Tiernan told the commission that he met Ordmonde as part of investigations into the Kenneally scandal, eventually leading to a report for RTÉ’s Prime Time programme later that year.
Tiernan alleged that the phone call between Ormonde and Shine took place following an April 2013 article in the Irish Times which reported details of historical abuse of children by a sports coach.
He said “the best way” to describe it was that Shine had sought help to get the “accusations suppressed” in case more details emerged.
“Donie Ormonde related to me that he had spoken to Monsignor Shine who had phoned him to keep some of the matters that were coming out away from the public,” Tiernan told the commission overseen by Mr Justice Michael White.
According to Tiernan, who the inquiry heard had drafted a document compiling four notebooks of information about the case, Ormonde had described the Kenneally family as “powerful” in the region due to their political and business connections.
He recalled the conversation as being on the record, which was not disputed by Ormonde.
It was put to Ormonde by a barrister representing a number of victims, Barra McGrory, that the contemporaneous notes taken by Tiernan were accurate – which the former TD denied.
“I suggest to you that you did say it,” McGrory said.
“I’m saying I didn’t,” Ormonde said.
Ormonde, who a chairman of a nursing home in Waterford at the time, told the inquiry that the priest was seeking a bed for his sister.
When Shine raised his nephew, Ormonde claims he said he “didn’t want to go there” and the conversation ended shortly afterwards.
“I suppose it was the elephant in the room, it was in the paper that week anyway. My response is that I’d rather not go there,” Ormonde said.
He recalled Shine then saying: “Yes that’s fine, but you’d look after my sister if you can.”
Ordmonde also denied ever having spoken to Maria Shine, who was Kenneally’s mother and the monsignor’s sister, about the case, despite the journalist’s contemporaneous notes having recorded that.
When asked if he had ever met her at “any Fianna Fáil functions, election counts, party events”, Ormonde said he “never” had.
“You can’t explain why Damien Tiernan, this experienced journalist, has recorded that you spoke to her?,” McGrory said.
“No, I can’t,” Ormonde replied.
Ray Motherway, barrister representing two victims of Kenneally, said Tiernan would have had “no reason to misrepresent” the March 2016 conversation between them, adding “You’d expect his notes to have been accurate.”
“I would have thought so, yes,” Ormonde said.
When asked if he told the journalist that he described a HSE psychiatrist who Kenneally was referred to as “susceptible” to political pressure, Ormonde denied that he said this.
The 1987 investigation by gardaí and any dealings South Eastern Health Board representatives may have had with Kenneally at the time are part of the commission’s work.
Ordmonde said he “[did not] believe” he had made the remarks, but added that he was “not saying they didn’t happen”.
“Certainly the conversation took place as regards [the doctor],” he said, claiming that he felt as an adult psychiatrist he was not the appropriate person to treat Kenneally.
When asked by commission barrister Patrick McCann if he did think the doctor was susceptible to political pressure, Ormonde said:
“I honestly don’t know.”
Ormonde said he was a TD of a rival Fianna Fáil group in Waterford, telling the inquiry that there was “no great love lost” between him and the Kenneally camp as they both competed for seats.
McGrory, barrister for several victims, who argued that any controversy surrounding the Kenneallys could have meant harm to the broader party, said that “damage to one Fianna Fáil family is damage to the reputation of the overall Fianna Fáil family”.
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