Cllr Sean McEniff
DONEGAL County Councillor Sean McEniff has, this morning, issued a statement denying any involvement in the Mary Boyle case.
A documentary released on Youtube by investigative journalist Gemma O’Doherty in recent weeks, and which has been viewed close to 100,000 times, alleges that there was political interference at the time the 6-year-old went missing from her grandparents home at Cashelard, Ballyshannon in 1977. It was suggested in the documentary that gardai investigating the case were told not to interview certain members of one family after a prominent politician told them not to.
Cllr McEniff has just spoken at today’s meeting of Donegal County Council to say that he “emphatically and unconditionally denies” that he was the politician who allegedly contacted the gardai in Ballyshannon at the time of the disappearance of Mary Boyle.
Cllr McEniff said he has been subjected to “trial by social media” which has been “very hard on his family”. Addressing the meeting he said that he is liaising “very strongly” with his solicitors about the allegations made.
Reading from a statement preapred by his solicitors, Cllr McEniff said: “As a councillor and a person active in his community over 40 years and entitled to his good name, I have taken legal advice in relation to the defamatory comments made both directly and by innuendo and will take such steps as are necessary to protect my reputation.”
He maintained some of the comments made were “false, malicious, and damaging”
A motion had been brought before the meeting by Cllr Frank McBrearty Jnr for a full enquiry into the allegations raised in the documentary.
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