EXCLUSIVE | 

Prolific sex abuser Bill Kenneally complains ‘I’m no paedo’ in letter to Sunday World

Jailed sports coach says kids he attacked were aged 13 and above, and using ‘paedo’ is ‘hate crime’

Today at 17:18

Prolific sex abuser Bill Kenneally has brazenly complained about being described as a paedophile in the Sunday World.

The former sports coach who is serving a 14-year-sentence for abusing boys also claims he only pleaded guilty because he wouldn’t get a fair trial.

In a bizarre letter he said the fact his victims were aged 13 and over means he is not a paedophile and he is the victim of hate speech.

“I have never pleaded guilty nor been found to be guilty of any criminal activity against any pre-pubescent person,” he wrote,

“Accordingly, the use of the word ‘paedophile’ or any derivative thereof, is untrue and ought to be deemed a hate crime.”

In February 2016 he was jailed for 14 years and two months at Waterford Circuit Court for abusing ten boys in the 1980s.

The ten counts were a representative sample of more than 70 charges covering a four-year period.

The trial judge said Kenneally came from a privileged background and worked as an accountant and that he had an appetite for the sexual gratification of young boys.

He said Kenneally had taken on the guise of being a coach or a mentor and that he groomed the boys for sexual exploitation for months and years.

Kenneally abused the boys at his home, in his car or at various other locations.

The court heard how the boys were described as powerless to prevent the abuse, with some suffering from alcohol dependency and depression and one contemplated suicide.

In his recent letter to the Sunday World Kennealy wrote that he switched his plea to guilty after the trial had started because he thought he would not get a fair trial.

“I acquiesced to plead guilty dependent upon there being no charge below the age of 13, although that admission was younger than what I would consider to be ‘true’ or ‘fair’.

“Eventually I was indicted on 13 charges against 5 complainants from each of their 13th birthdays to the day preceding their 15th birthdays.”

“In order to finalise and having resigned myself to the fact that I was in Ireland, therefore not going to receive a constitutionally guaranteed ‘fair trial’ I pleaded guilty to each of those 13 charges.”

Kenneally lost an appeal against that sentence in 2018 and last year was given another four-and-a-half years after more abuse came to light.

During Kenneally’s most recent trial it was heard how he would drive groups of boys home from basketball training, and the last one left in the car would be subjected to abuse.

He would also give gifts, money and alcohol to the boys and brought groups of boys to his home to watch pornography.

One man in his victim impact statement said giving evidence in a “room full of strangers” was one of the “hardest things I’ve had to do.”

Another of the five men said he was a “young and innocent” child who found himself “on the radar of a depraved pervert”.

The Sunday World previously revealed how there were fears Kenneally would escape justice by dying on hunger strike in prison before he got an extra four-and-a-half year sentence last year.

The Waterford basketball coach had gone on hunger strike at the Midlands prison in a bizarre attempt to stop his second trial going ahead.

Kenneally, who previously took an overdose after losing an appeal against that sentence, had told staff he did not want medical treatment if he fell into a coma during his protest, according to sources.

There were fears because of an underlying medical condition, his health could suddenly deteriorate and quickly cause his death.

He ended the protest but when transferred to another part of the prison was then attacked by another inmate who taunted him as “Jimmy Savile”.

Kenneally, who would have been due out in October 2026, is now facing a release date some time in early 2030 when he will be 78 years of age.

His litany of abuse over three decades and whether it was the subject of cover up is currently being investigated by a Commission of Inquiry.

In 2013, when confronted by the Sunday World, Kenneally said he didn’t know why he wasn’t prosecuted when allegations were first made against him.

“Anybody in that situation would be hoping it wouldn’t be pressed. I wasn’t involved in any representations anyway,” he said at the time.