LAST UPDATE | 25 Jun

SURVIVORS OF NOTORIOUS child abuser Bill Kenneally met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Thursday, as they continue their bid for an apology from the state and multiple organisations over their treatment.

The meeting followed the publication of a major state inquiry examining child sexual abuse complaints regarding the former accountant and sports coach, who also died last week while serving a jail sentence in Midlands Prison.

Colin Power, one of six survivors who met the Taoiseach, told The Journal afterwards that there had been an “open and fairly frank discussion” of the inquiry report. The men were accompanied by their solicitors.

He said that they had “stressed the importance” of the recommendations to refer certain findings to the Law Reform Commission for review.

Colin Power outside Leinster House earlier this month. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

This referred to the recommendation from a judge that there should be a new offence on the statute books for when a public official perverts the course of justice not by criminality, but by “serious dereliction” of duty.

Despite confessing to two senior gardaí in 1987 that he had abused boys, Kenneally walked free, continued to abuse and did not face justice until he was imprisoned decades later.

One of the surviving gardaí, Sean Cashman, told the inquiry that there was no cover up, and instead he felt that allowing Kenneally’s family, who included a former Fianna Fáil TD and a local priest, to arrange psychiatric treatment was a better option in light of an unwillingness of families to make official complaints.

In his report, retired High Court judge Michael White said there was a “serious failure” to investigate the matter properly in 1987 and 1988 had “devastating consequences” for victims

He added that it was crucial to “distinguish between incompetence and serious dereliction of duty requiring criminal sanction”, but that the issue should be referred to the Law Reform Commission for “urgent consideration”.

Speaking on Thursday, Power said it was important for the law to be changed so that someone can be prosecuted and held responsible if they are aware of sexual abuse but don’t seek to use the information for a prosecution.

“If you’ve been through this over the past eight and a half years, since the inquiry began, then that would be something we achieved outside ourselves and going forward for people in Ireland,” he said.

Power said the group attending Thursday’s meeting had also discussed with the Taoiseach a plan confirmed by justice minister Jim O’Callaghan last week that they would receive a state apology, alongside a debate in the Dáil chamber.

Both of these could happen as soon as a fortnight’s time, with both the apology and debate taking place on the same day, Power said.

Fianna Fáil

Survivors have also sought an apology from Fianna Fáil, An Garda Síochána, the HSE and the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, but it is less clear if this will happen, following the inquiry’s finding that there was no collusion by these organisations around the abuse.

Power said this was discussed with the Taoiseach in the context of his Fianna Fáil party on Thursday but nothing had been agreed.

Kenneally – from Laragh, Summerville Avenue, Waterford – was a former tallyman and canvasser for Fianna Fáil for decades and a part of the powerful Kenneally political dynasty in the city.

His uncle Billy Kenneally Snr was among those who became involved in the initial 1987 enquiries, while his cousin and former TD Brendan Kenneally had learned about the abuse in 2001.

“The Fianna Fáil element has to be dealt with in my opinion but it wasn’t top of the agenda today,” said Power, explaining that there was an eagerness from survivors to address the judge’s recommendations and state apology during the meeting.

Apology from sitting TD

Waterford Fianna Fáil TD and the government chief whip Mary Butler said last week that she offered a personal apology for any “trauma, distress or hurt” that she has caused Bill Kenneally’s abuse survivors, but she noted that Fianna Fáil as an organisation had not been implicated.

Fianna Fáil’s previous TD for Waterford Brendan Kenneally, a cousin of Bill, resigned his membership of the party after this month’s report was published.

Among the findings, the former high court judge who heading up the inquiry wrote in his report how the partner of one of the former victims of Bill Kenneally had contacted Brendan in 2001 to tell him about the abuse.

Brendan Kenneally did not report this to any formal agencies but instead sought to arrange psychiatric treatment for his cousin.

This course of action, the report found, at “the very least fell substantially below the standards the Commission would expect from a TD of Mr Kenneally’s experience”.

The Commission reported that “it cannot definitively on the balance of probabilities establish knowledge by Brendan Kenneally of Bill Kenneally’s sexual abuse of boys prior to 2001”.

Bill Kenneally died last week at Midlands Prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence for the abuse of 15 boys, just days after the publication of the state report.