‘Bizarre for Kean to write to Callinan’
THAT Gerald Kean would write to the Garda commissioner seeking help with a threat of libel action from a member of the force is ‘really, really strange’ and ‘bizarre’, Judge Peter Charleton told the Disclosures Tribunal yesterday.
The judge said it must have seemed ‘astonishing’ to the commissioner’s private secretary, and queried why neither he, nor ex-commissioner Martin Callinan, nor Mr Kean had voluntarily told the tribunal team about the incident.
Querying why the then commissioner replied to Mr Kean at all, he asked: ‘Had the commissioner lost all touch with reality?’
Mr Kean testified last week that Sgt Maurice McCabe had written to him, accusing him of defamation, after the high-profile lawyer told an RTÉ radio show in January 2014 that the whistleblower had not cooperated with an internal Garda review of the penaltypoints system.
The tribunal – which is investigating whether senior gardaí attempted to smear Sgt McCabe, following his whistleblowing claims of Garda malpractice – heard Mr Kean and then Mr Callinan had spoken for almost an hour on the day before the show.
Mr Kean said he sent a copy of Sgt McCabe’s legal letter to Mr Callinan, asking for help in responding to the whistleblower.
Detective Superintendent Frank Walsh said he remembered discussing the letters with Mr Callinan, but said the then commissioner never told him about his conversations with Mr Kean.
He said he merely thought it was ‘inappropriate’ for the commissioner to be seen to give advice to Mr Kean, given that another member of the force was involved, and the matter was likely to end up in court.
Judge Charleton said: ‘The word bizarre is bandied about, but surely you must have been astonished... There have been a lot of strange things but this is really, really, really strange.’
The judge said the commissioner’s office must have been used to receiving letters ‘from a lot of disgruntled people’. Apropos the response to Mr Kean, the judge said: ‘Clearly your first question would be, “What does this have to do with us? We should put it in the place for people who are out of touch with reality.”’
Det Supt Walsh said Mr Callinan told him he was anxious to help Mr Kean ‘because he was a great supporter of the gardaí’.
Det Supt Walsh said he was asked to take the note to Mr Kean’s office on February 12. The note, written in the first person, gave four paragraphs which were inserted into Mr Kean’s response to Sgt McCabe, and included a reference to the internal inquiry into penalty points, and to concerns of the Data Commissioner about the release of information.
‘I and the commissioner realised it was inappropriate, but notwithstanding, the commissioner was anxious to help Mr Kean,’ said the witness.
Judge Charleton asked: ‘Had the commissioner lost all touch with reality?’
Det Supt Walsh went on to deny the meeting between Mr Callinan and Mr Kean was ‘clandestine’ but agreed he could see why it might be described that way.
The tribunal will resume evidence at the end of the month.
‘Had he lost all touch with reality?’