Joanne Hayes wins declarations over infant murder accusation

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Joanne Hayes and her siblings secured High Court declarations as part of a settlement of their damages actions. The State apologised to the family before Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds on 18 December 2020.

The court declared that the tribunal’s findings of wrongdoing against the family were unfounded and incorrect. It separately declared that their questioning, arrest, charge and prosecution between April and October 1984 were unfounded and breached their constitutional rights. The State consented to the declarations.

Hayes and family members were arrested after a newborn baby with multiple stab wounds was found in Cahersiveen, south Kerry, in 1984. Gardaí accused Hayes of being the baby’s mother and murdering him; her family were accused of concealing a birth. The charges were dropped in October 1984.

The family claimed that, after their arrest in May 1984, wrongful acts by gardaí forced them to make false confessions, which they later withdrew. Counsel said a blood test that month made clear Hayes was not the baby’s mother.

The actions against the Garda Commissioner, Minister for Justice, Ireland and the Attorney General were struck out; proceedings against the Director of Public Prosecutions were discontinued. A separate damages claim by Hayes’s daughter, Yvonne McGuckin, was settled and struck out.

The declarations are to be permanently attached to the tribunal report in the Oireachtas library. No settlement details were disclosed in open court.