A FORMER FIANNA Fáil TD has told a State inquiry that he accepts he may have been “wrong” not to inform gardaí about child abuse allegations regarding his cousin Bill Kenneally.

In evidence before the Commission of Investigation, Brendan Kenneally said that he did not conceal his cousin’s abuse of children to protect any “political ambitions” and that it was not a “family secret” held by members.

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 placing 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”.

Last May, Bill Kenneally 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.

The commission, sitting in the Law Library in Dublin, 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 his abuse believe Bill Kenneally could have been arrested and charged at a far earlier stage.

Evidence

Brendan Kenneally told the Commission of Investigation that 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. He also corrected the record on when the meeting took place, as the commission previously heard that it was in 2002.

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.

The man came forward as a victim almost 20 years later.

‘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”.

He 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 did undertake to “make sure other children, more children, weren’t molested in any way” by his cousin.

The TD went to his father, Billy Kenneally, who was also a Waterford Fianna Fáil TD from the 1960s to the early 1980s, for advice on what to with the woman’s information.

To his “total shock”, his father said he was aware of the abuse and directed him to go to a Catholic priest, Monsignor John Shine, who “knew all about it” and had dealt it allegations previously.

Brendan Kenneally recalled Shine responding “to the effect” of “Oh no, not again”. Shine was Bill Kenneally’s uncle.

“He told me was aware of what had gone on previously,” Brendan Kenneally said, “that he had abused boys in the past and had spoken to him in the past about it.”

Brendan Kenneally told the commission that he didn’t ask for the names of other boys who were abused by his cousin.

Previously, the commission heard that Shine, who is now deceased, spoke to gardaí about the sport coach’s abuse of children in 1987.

Gardaí decided against charging Bill Kenneally, with the lead investigator from the period claiming that no victims would come forward to make a formal complaint.

In 2001, Brendan Kenneally recalled that he and Shine agreed to get a psychiatrist to see Bill Kenneally.

Brendan Kenneally added that he was told by the monsignor not to allow Bill Kenneally know that he (Brendan Kenneally) knew about the abuse.

The reason for that was so Brendan could “keep an eye” on Bill Kenneally more easily, the commission heard.

Brendan Kenneally said he “rarely” called to his cousin’s house afterwards and, when asked by commission barrister Ercus Stewart how this constituted “monitoring”, the former TD said that he spoke with a now-deceased juvenile basketball coach about whether Bill Kenneally was still involved with children in a local basketball club.

He recalled the juvenile coach telling him that Bill Kenneally was not involved with youths at the club.

He added that he also asked Monsignor Shine “to make sure that the photographs [taken of victims] were destroyed” after their discussion in 2001.

During cross-examination by a barrister for one group of victims, Barra McGrory of Phoenix Law, Brendan Kenneally was asked whether he failed to contact gardaí because he “knew there was going to be a general election in the next ten months” and feared that his “prospects would be damaged”.

“Would you not have been concerned about it if it got out that cousin Bill was a child abuser,” McGrory asked.

Brendan Kenneally replied that the “thought never entered my head”.

“It never entered my head. Total truth, I’m under oath – that is the truth.”

Additionally, McGrory said the commission had heard earlier evidence that, when the story about the case broke in the media in April 2013, Shine had told his nephew to “shut his mouth and don’t be saying anything”.

Bill Kenneally had given interviews to the Irish Times and RTÉ as the story initially broke.

The commission heard that this evidence had been recalled by a victim who claimed they had heard it from Bill Kenneally.

Cork tournament

Stewart, for the Commission, put one victim’s evidence to Brendan Kenneally about a basketball tournament in Cork in 1980 or 1981.

The victim said that the tournament 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 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.

Fianna Fáil canvass

It was put to Brendan Kenneally that despite knowing his cousin was an “admitted paedophile” he had him canvass for Fianna Fáil at election time.

“He would have been going with adults, he would have been talking to adults,” Brendan Kenneally said.

Stewart said that a number of victims have told the commission that they were “very upset” when they saw Bill Kenneally, their abuser, appear at the door canvassing for votes.

Brendan Kenneally said he “wasn’t aware of that” and added that he wasn’t aware that one victim didn’t register to vote for “fear” of Bill Kenneally arriving at their door.

The commission concluded today with Mr Justice White stating that Brendan Kenneally will be called back for further cross-examination when hearings return in the coming weeks.

Today marked the end of the first module of the inquiry taking place in public. Earlier sittings happened in private as the latest criminal trial against Bill Kenneally was taking place.