LAST UPDATE | 12 Mar
CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER Bill Kenneally has told a State inquiry that he was offered a seat on Waterford City Council in the early-1990s.
The 73-year-old, who made his first appearance today at the Commission of Investigation formed to examine how State agencies and organisations handled reports of his crimes, alleged he had been put forward for the seat in 1992.
Five years previously he had been questioned by gardaí over complaints of child abuse.
Kenneally is currently serving two prison terms for abusing 15 boys between the years 1979 and 1990, and was first jailed in 2016.
He also recalled the pivotal meeting in the 1987 with senior gardaí in which he admitted to abusing six boys. He was released by the officers after being questioned.
The meeting came about during a Garda investigation in December 1987 following complaints by the family of one victim.
Kenneally said today that despite this, he was not contacted by gardaí until almost “25 years” later when one of his victims made a formal complaint to gardaí in 2012.
He told today’s inquiry that he was at one point offered a seat on Waterford City Council to replace his cousin Brendan Kenneally.
If he took the seat, it was understood that he would be “guaranteed” to be Mayor of Waterford within two years, Kenneally claimed.
But he decided against it, fearing it would open a “can of worms” and reveal the prior allegations against him.
His family, who have previously been described as the ‘Kennedys’ of the local area, were steeped in Waterford city politics.
Kenneally’s grandfather, uncle and cousin all had stints in the Dáil stretching from the 1950s until 2011.
Kenneally was brought by gardaí to give evidence today at the inquiry sitting in the Law Library in Dublin.
A number of survivors of Kenneally’s abuse attended today’s session, accompanied by their family members. At one point, when Kenneally complained he was “living under a shadow” in the years after being let go by gardaí, several intakes of breath could be heard across the room.
Kenneally also said that the crimes against him in the 1980s would be “viewed nowadays as far more serious crime”.
Several survivors left the room while listening to Kenneally argue about past evidence used against him during his court trial.
Later, he outlined that when his cousin Brendan Kenneally was appointed Minister of State in the Department of Tourism, Transport and Communications in 1992, it meant that he was required to vacate his seat on the city council in Waterford.
As the seat would not be put to an open election, it was instead offered to Bill Kenneally. He claimed he would have been a “compromise” between warring factions in Fianna Fáil in the constituency at the time.
“I was like Jack Lynch back in ‘66 – the compromise candidate,” Kenneally told the inquiry while laughing.
(Lynch, who served as Taoiseach across two period in the late 60s and 70s, was initially put forward to be leader of FF by his predecessor Sean Lemass as a ‘compromise’ in place of George Colley and Charles Haughey.)
However, Kenneally decided not to take the council seat.
“I was asked to be a city councillor and in two years it would Fianna Fáil’s turn to be mayor, but because it would increase the possibility of my history blowing up I opted not to enter politics.”
Brendan Kenneally, who previously gave evidence at the inquiry, was not in attendance today and has not had an opportunity to respond to his cousin’s claims made today at the Commission.
He outlined that he had been contacted on St Stephen’s Day in 1987 by his uncle and Fianna Fáil politician Billy Kenneally, urging him to visit gardaí at Waterford Garda Station.
It was at this meeting that Bill Kenneally said he admitted to abusing six boys.
He said he was told to seek out two gardaí at the station: the then-Acting Chief Superintendent Sean Cashman and Inspector PJ Hayes (who is now deceased). Kenneally told them he met them that same day at Waterford Garda Station.
Speaking today, he also said that he gave them assurances that he would receive psychiatric help.
A further name was discussed by gardaí during the Stephen’s Day meeting but Kenneally said he did not abuse that boy.
Senior counsel representing a group of Kenneally’s victims, Barra McGrory, said that this meant a “minimum of seven names” were discussed during the meeting.
In earlier evidence, Cashman told the commission that there was “no cover up” in the case and that he thought he was dealing with Bill Kenneally in the correct manner in 1987, as no victim wanted to press charges at the time.
Gardaí received assurances from Kenneally that he would seek medical help, Cashman previously told the commission.
Medical treatment
Discussing his treatment following the garda investigation, Kenneally said that while he underwent up to six sessions with a Dr Michael Kelleher at his home, he said that he felt “urges” towards teenagers again around the summer of 1988.
Kelleher is now deceased.
When Kenneally saw Dr Kelleher again, he said that the psychiatrist told him that that he could give him medication to help, but alleged that both the doctor and himself were reluctant to do so as the “chemist would know what it was for” when he went to collect the prescription.
Kenneally told the inquiry that he didn’t want anyone to find out about his discussions with gardaí.
He said that there was a further contact with gardaí some months later in March 1988, but that he did not receive any further Garda contact until “25 years later”, when gardaí began investigating a complaint which eventually saw him jailed.
Kenneally also alleged today that he had “probably” been abused when he was a teenager by an adult known to his family.
The information had previously arisen in a psychiatric report carried out when Kenneally first went to court in 2016.
Kenneally is to appear again tomorrow.
The Commission of Investigation, formed six years ago, has heard from senior gardaí, the clergy, the former South Eastern Health Board and a number of retired Fianna Fáil politicians and party members as part of its work.
A number of survivors of Kenneally’s abuse allege that there was collusion which prevented the sex offender from being arrested and charged much earlier.
The 73-year-old, from Laragh, Summerville Avenue, Waterford, was sentenced in 2016 for 14 years in prison for abusing 10 boys from 1984 to 1987.
Last May, he received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing five boys between December 1979 and March 1990.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say