Solicitors to press for inquiry on Dalkey babies

Solicitors acting for the woman at the centre of a Garda investigation into the deaths of two children in Dalkey, Co Dublin, 30 years ago have pledged to "continue to press for wide-ranging inquiries" into the affair.

In a statement, Dublin solicitors O'Brien Dunne said their client had been "attempting to obtain justice for many years" following the woman's alleged rape as a young girl by her father and brothers.

Gardaí yesterday continued to search the garden of a house in Dalkey, Co Dublin, for the remains of a child to whom the woman says she gave birth when she was 14.

The remains of another child, to whom she allegedly gave birth aged just 11, were found dumped in a lane in Upper George's Street, Dún Laoghaire, in 1973.

The woman's solicitors said they were grateful to Dún Laoghaire coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty for agreeing to reopen the inquest into the death of the baby girl, who had been stabbed up to 14 times with a knitting needle.

However, they said the State also owed her an explanation for the way in which it had dealt with her allegations.

In a related development, former Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter has questioned why gardaí only began searching for the remains of the second child this week, given the woman had informed gardaí about the death in 1995.

"I find it amazing that this dig didn't occur at least 10 years ago. I don't know why that didn't happen," Mr Shatter told RTÉ radio.

The former deputy noted he had had no knowledge of the case until it was revealed in a report in The Irish Times in 1995.

"I was horrified by the detail of ongoing and continuous sexual abuse . . . and found it astonishing that the DPP, in light of the information available, wasn't initiating prosecutions."

He said he wrote to then minister for justice Nora Owen expressing concern at the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions and requesting "that she write to the Garda Commissioner to ask him to consider what additional investigative action could be taken by the gardaí to facilitate the bringing of an appropriate prosecution.

"The response that I got three months later was, I was informed by her - and she was correct to say this - that the DPP was independent in his functions and she couldn't interfere with the DPP in the decisions he was making. And she said she was satisfied that the gardaí had conducted a very thorough and sensitive investigation into the case.

"My concern then and has remained that I felt there was more the gardaí could do," Mr Shatter added.

Speaking to The Irish Times last night, Ms Owen said she did not specifically remember the letter in question.

"But I am absolutely certain any letter like that would have been sent immediately to the Garda Commissioner and then the department would have followed up for a reply.

"You would not expect an answer back very, very quickly because the gardaí would have had to go back into the case," she said, adding: "No action could be taken by any minister with regard to the functions of the DPP or the gardaí."

The solicitors for the woman at the centre of the case said yesterday their client was "too distraught" to speak to the media and she had asked for her privacy to be respected.

Three family members, including the woman's parents and one brother were questioned about the woman's claims in 1995. A second brother took his own life shortly before the arrests in mid-1995.

It was alleged yesterday that a sister of the woman had recently taken her own life, apparently having left a letter detailing episodes of sexual abuse.

The father of the two women has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.