Pat Kenny says he was quizzed about his sexuality by cops probing RTE colleague’s murder

The broadcaster said he was “shocked and aghast” after officers bluntly asked him if he was gay during an investigation into the killing of RTÉ set designer Charles Self, who he worked with on The Late Late Show, in the 1980s.

The 32-year-old Scotsman was found stabbed to death in his at Annesley Mews home in Monkstown, south Dublin on January 21, 1982.

Gardaí infamously interrogated dozens of members of the gay community over the murder, which has still not been solved, and Pat Kenny has claimed that he too was contacted by officers and asked if he was “one of them boys”.

The 74-year-old explained that gardaí were making their way through Self’s contact book and landed on his name.

“I got a phone call sometime after the investigation had started, weeks I would think,” he told Frank Greaney on his podcast, Inside The Crime.

“The guards identified themselves and said ‘Look, we’re investigating the murder of Charles Self. Were you acquainted with him?’

“I said, ‘Yes, I was. Why are you calling me?’ and they said, ‘Well, we are going through his contacts book and we’re going through every name and now we have come to the Ks and Kenny is there under K, so we’re calling you.’

“I said, ‘That’s fine’ and they said, ‘Were you ever in the Mews in Monkstown?’ and I said, ‘No I never was.’ That’s where his body was found, where he lived.

“And they said, ‘How well did you know him?’ and I explained that he was a designer on the show and that would be the reason for my name being in his contact book.

“1982 – no mobile phones so everyone had to contact each other by landline and that’s how it was”.

Pat said gardaí were “knocking on my door within an hour”.

“I explained everything. I couldn’t really help them in any shape or form,” he continued.

“And then they said, ‘Do you mind if we ask you a question?’ I said, ‘No, fire away’ and they said, ‘You wouldn’t happen to be one of them boys yourself, would you?’

“I was shocked and aghast. And also, somewhat amused because by that they meant was I gay.

“I said, ‘No I don’t happen to be one of them boys myself.’”

He added: “Shortly after that, they left.”

Self’s body was found partly slumped against his front door and lying in a pool of blood by fellow RTÉ designer Bertram ‘Bertie’ Tyrer, who had stayed in Self’s home the night before, on the morning of January 21, 1982.

He had been stabbed 14 times and suffered three slash wounds to the throat. Part of the cord from his roommate, RTÉ DJ Vincent Hanley’s red dressing gown was also wound tightly around his neck.

In 2008 Detective Garda Alan Bailey, who reinvestigated the case, believed there were “anomalies” in the original investigation, which led him to conclude that the murder scene may have been “staged” by the killer to divert attention from himself.

To date, the case remains unsolved.