A verdict of suicide has been recorded at an inquest following the death of a former scout leader who had been accused of the historical sexual abuse of boys in Dublin in the 1980s and 1990s.
Neville Kearns (69) died in a single-vehicle collision in Churchtown, south Dublin, shortly after 6am on April 7th last year. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
He had been due to stand trial the following day on 113 counts including charges of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape and attempted rape. These related to allegations, made by five complainants, dating back to the 1980s and 1990s.
Dublin coroner Dr Clare Keane recorded the verdict on Tuesday, noting the cause of death was thoracic and musculoskeletal injuries consistent with a collision.
READ MORE
The inquest heard that when emergency services arrived at the scene they found a red 2002 Toyota Hiace van had crashed into a tree on the wrong side of Churchtown Road Upper.
Garda John Culleton said the weather was dry on the morning in question and there was no evidence “whatsoever” of braking on the road.
Damage to the vehicle was “concentrated” on the driver’s side, he said.
The inquest heard how Kearns was not wearing a seat belt.
Emergency services had to remove the door to get Kearns from the vehicle. Paramedics performed CPR, but Kearns was pronounced dead at the scene at 6.34am, the inquest heard.
Gda David O’Brien inspected the van after the crash. He said, despite how old the vehicle was, it was “serviceable” and the tyres and brakes were in “good condition”.
Gda Culleton said the evidence indicated Kearns most likely turned the van “towards the tree” and the damage caused to the tree indicated the vehicle was “travelling well above the speed limit”.
At the time of his death, Kearns was a caretaker at Edenvale Apartments, a gated apartment complex on Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin. He lived in a campervan on the grounds, the inquest heard.
The van involved in the collision was a different vehicle to the campervan in which he lived.
Biba van Belle, Kearns’s niece, told the inquest she removed his personal belongings from the campervan and a storage facility at Edenvale Apartments following his death.
Among the belongings were documents which were later handed over to gardaí.
Ms van Belle last spoke to her uncle more than 20 years before his death, the inquest heard.
Sergeant Robert Scott from Blackrock Garda station said he spoke to a number of people who had contact with Kearns prior to his death and it appeared Kearns was “trying to get affairs in order”.
Sgt Scott told the inquest the documents found in the campervan and shed included a note in which Kearns said he was “tired of it all” and “must bring closure to it all”.
A will was found on a table in the campervan, Sgt Scott said, as well as documents showing Kearns’s funeral had already been paid for.
These receipts dated from 2020 when gardaí first contacted Kearns about the abuse allegations, the inquest heard.
Sgt Scott said gardaí believed the location of the crash was significant as it was close to where Kearns held unofficial scout meetings decades earlier.
He said there was “no third-party involvement or anything of a suspicious nature” related to Kearns’s death.
He said he believed Kearns had taken his own life.
Detective Sergeant Barry O’Connor identified Kearns’s body the following day at the mortuary at St Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Co Dublin.
Det Sgt O’Connor told the inquest he had met Kearns several times before the man’s death.
Kearns was a member of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland in the 1970s prior to setting up his own unofficial scouting group.
One alleged victim told The Irish Times in June how Kearns’s death was “his final act of cowardice”.
Imagining what he would have said to Kearns in court, he stated: “You had the opportunity to face up to what you had done, but you chose not to and so you have left a despicable legacy of abuse over decades.”
