[Joanne Hayes at the Kerry Babies Tribunal in Tralee Court house, April 1985 ]
Thirty years on
A retired detective inspector who was involved in the Kerry Babies investigation 30 years ago has called for the exhumation of the remains of both male infants for full DNA analysis.
Gerry O’Carroll still agrees with a prevailing Garda view at the time that Joanne Hayes, the woman at the centre of the saga, had twins.
“For that reason, there’s no other way to establish if the babies were twins, only by DNA analysis.,” he said.
Exhumation ‘would resolve’ Kerry Babies case (Donal Hickey, Irish Examiner)
Alternatively…
The Garda case against Joanna Hynes advanced a theory of superfecundation- that she had had been impregnanted by two men around the same time – something that was theoretically possible but unprovable given the weakness of corroborating technical and forensic evidence.
For example there was no forensic evidence that Joanne had been stabbed in Joanne’s bed as the confessions obtained by the gardai had claimed.
Furthermore there was no evidence that the baby that was buried on the farm was not a stillbirth. The case built up by the gardai was riddled with inconsistencies.The DPP advised the Garda Superintendent to withdraw charges at the earliest opportunity…
The Books That Defined Ireland (Bryan Fanning and Tom Garvin)
(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)