{"id":490755,"date":"2026-06-09T14:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490755\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:34:09","slug":"abhorrent-crimes-of-convicted-paedophile-bill-kenneally-detailed-in-landmark-investigative-report-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490755\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Abhorrent crimes\u2019 of convicted paedophile Bill Kenneally detailed in landmark investigative report \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cabhorrent crimes\u201d of Bill Kenneally<\/a> and significant issues of public concern have been raised in a landmark Commission of Investigation report on the convicted paedophile.<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan published the final report on Tuesday and said he will now \u201cconsider its findings\u201d. <\/p>\n

The head of the Commission of Investigation into complaints against the serial Waterford sex abuser found there was a serious dereliction of duty by senior Garda officers when they learned Kenneally sexually abused a boy in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

Retired High Court judge Michael White also criticised the South Eastern Health Board for failing to follow through on complaints of sexual abuse that could have led to him being caught much sooner.<\/p>\n

The report also said the Law Reform Commission should be asked to give \u201curgent consideration\u201d to the issue of whether there should be a new offence of \u201cserious dereliction of duty by a public official which falls short of deliberate perversion of the course of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report of the South East Commission of Investigation was prepared by White on foot of his inquiry<\/a> into the allegations regarding the responses by various State agencies and others into reports of sexual abuse by the former basketball coach and Fianna F\u00e1il tallyman.<\/p>\n

Kenneally pleaded guilty in late 2015 and again in 2022 to multiple cases of child sex abuse in Waterford. A member of a well-known Fianna F\u00e1il family, Kenneally is in jail for the abuse of 15 children between 1979 and 1990.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan received the final report on Monday, and told Government colleagues at a Cabinet meeting that he intended to publish it on Tuesday. The publication was also shared with victims. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who is Bill Kenneally? The basketball coach whose crimes had \u2018lifelong impact on victims\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to acknowledge the bravery of the victims of Bill Kenneally and thank them for their perseverance and strength in seeking truth and accountability. The report I am publishing today was given yesterday to those victims who are in contact with my department via their legal representatives. I hope they and the other victims of the abhorrent crimes of Bill Kenneally will find the report to be a detailed and thorough assessment of the significant issues of public concern that arose in relation to his crimes,\u201d O\u2019Callaghan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work of the Commission of Investigation was complex, and I want to thank Judge White, his team and Judge Hickson for bringing this to completion and for the comprehensiveness of the investigation and the detailed recommendations which have been brought forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will now reflect on the findings of the report. It is also important that we allow the victims the time to read and consider its findings.\u201d <\/p>\n

The report raised questions about Irish laws and frontline services, and said the State was \u201chistorically blind to sexual abuse operating beneath the surface\u201d.<\/p>\n

People in \u201cresponsible positions,\u201d including senior garda\u00ed, a priest, a senior clergyman and a former politician, were aware of Kenneally\u2019s sexual abuse from as early as 1987. <\/p>\n

It said \u201cnothing appropriate\u201d was done until 2012, when Jason Clancy made his first formal complaint to garda\u00ed. <\/p>\n

The retired politician and his son, then an elected politician, and the senior clergyman had become aware in 2001 that Kenneally had continued to keep abusing children after he was warned by garda\u00ed about his behaviour in 1987. <\/p>\n

The final report of the Commission of Investigation into Kenneally said although the contact with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na in 1987 had \u201cchanged\u201d the paedophile\u2019s behaviour, it \u201cdid not stop his sexual abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difficulty of dealing with this problem historically and continuing today should not be underestimated. Those who sexually abuse children are by their nature and obsessions secretive and cunning. It was and is difficult to detect and prove. Children were silenced by the shame of it and also their inability to articulate the horrible things happening to them. On occasions when it was articulated people were not listening,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

When Clancy and four other men abused by Kenneally as boys learned he had been questioned by garda\u00ed in 1987 about the abuse of another boy but never prosecuted, they began lobbying for a Commission of Investigation into who knew what and when.<\/p>\n

In November 2016, Clancy and the other men presented a detailed dossier to then minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald in support of their call for an inquiry into what garda\u00ed and the local health board knew about Kenneally in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

On May 30th, 2017, the then government decided to set up a Commission of Investigation after seeking legal advice from the attorney general. At that stage, a number of other men had come forward with new criminal complaints against Kenneally.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bill Kenneally tells abuse inquiry his crimes would not have been viewed \u2018one quarter\u2019 as serious in 1987Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The commission heard from about 90 witnesses in both public and private hearings from September 11th, 2023, and concluded in May 2024.<\/p>\n

White submitted his report, which runs to more than 400 pages, to O\u2019Callaghan in March. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cabhorrent crimes\u201d of Bill Kenneally and significant issues of public concern have been raised in a landmark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,210811,895,61,60,43,6513],"class_list":["post-490755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-bill-kenneally-inquiry","tag-fianna-fail","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}