Murdered: The Baby On The Beach | Preview (Channel 4)

Channel 4 presents new three-part documentary series on how the discovery of a five-day-old boy's body on a lonely Co Kerry beach in April 1984 set in train a chain of events that would bring shame on the-then conservatively minded Irish state and the Gardai.

A description reads: An innocent woman was accused of murdering her child, leading to a tribunal now recognised as a witch hunt.

The prosecutor makes a crucial decision to drop the charges against Joanne Hayes and the family. Questions are now asked about the validity of the Hayes' confessions, and the Kerry Babies Tribunal is established to examine the methods used by the Gardai.

However, it becomes evident that the tribunal's focus is not on scrutinising the Gardai's actions but on destroying Joanne Hayes' reputation. Lessons to be learned from the Kerry Babies case of 1984, which shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the treatment of vulnerable women in Irish society against a backdrop of church control, police corruption and heated national debates on abortion, contraception and divorce.

The Baby On The Beach begins Sunday 03rd December at 10:35pm on Channel 4.