THE DEATH HAS taken place of well known retired Garda Murder Squad member Detective Inspector Gerry O’Carroll.

It is understood he died in the Palliative Care Unit, University Hospital, Kerry yesterday following a short illness. 

The former investigator came to prominence in a number of cases including the now discredited probe into the discovery of the Kerry Babies.

That was the investigation of the discovery of a baby boy with extensive stab wounds on a beach near Cahirsiveen in 1984. Gardaí had arrested Abbeydorney woman Joanne Hayes for the murder. 

Last March two people from the locality were arrested by gardaí. Gardaí had apologised to Hayes in 2018.

The retired detective had called for a public enquiry in recent years and accepted, following a DNA sample, that Joanne Hayes was not the mother of the child.  

O’Carroll grew up in Kerry as one of a family of 15 children and joined An Garda Síochána in the early 1970s. 

He served first in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, but then transferred to the infamous murder squad in which he served for 30 years.

Following his retirement he became a regular commentator on crime and wrote a column for The Evening Herald newspaper. 

He also published a memoir entitled The Sheriff – a Detective’s Story.