Scandal that has raged for a decade
MORE than a decade since it first began, the case of Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe is back in the spotlight.
It began in January 2006, when Sgt McCabe made a complaint about two Garda colleagues who turned up at the scene of a suicide after drinking in a pub. One of them was disciplined.
In December 2006, the daughter of the disciplined guard made a complaint against Sgt McCabe, claiming he ‘rubbed up’ against her when playing hide and seek when she was a child. The DPP decided there would be no prosecution.
Between 2008 and 2012, Sgt McCabe raised concerns about penalty points disappearing. His superiors restricted his access to the Garda Pulse system. Sgt McCabe also made complaints about malpractice, harassment and corruption in the gardaí in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan.
In 2013, a file containing false allegations of child abuse against Sgt McCabe was widely circulated. Then, in January 2014, the thenGarda commissioner Martin Callinan caused a furore when he called the actions of Garda whistleblowers ‘disgusting’. Leo Varadkar, trans- port minister at the time, asked him to withdraw the comments.
Two months later, Mr Callinan resigned for ‘family reasons’. The then-justice minister Alan Shatter joined him in May, following criticism of his handling of the case.
In February 2015, the O’Higgins Commission was set up to look at allegations of Garda malpractice raised by Sgt McCabe. The current crisis is over an email sent in May of that year, forwarded to then justice minister Frances Fitzgerald, about disagreements at the commission between the respective legal teams of the gardaí and Sgt McCabe.