Former press officer’s claims about smear plot ‘are implausible’

‘Your account is untrue’ ‘Were you trying to wind him up?’

FORMER Garda press officer David Taylor’s claims about a smear campaign against Maurice McCabe were cast in doubt yesterday – with one lawyer describing his allegations as ‘inherently implausible’ and ‘devoid of specifics’.

Supt Taylor also told the Disclosures Tribunal that he can’t explain why so many journalists have rejected his claim that he briefed them adversely about the garda whistleblower.

Counsel for the crime reporter Paul Williams labelled Superintendent Taylor’s evidence ‘implausible’ after the former press officer admitted he could not identify a single instance when he had briefed Mr Williams adversely about Sergeant McCabe.

Rossa Fanning, SC for Mr Williams, said Supt Taylor’s evidence was ‘inherently implausible’. He said it was ‘almost devoid of specifics’, and the only firm memory the press officer had of a call from Mr Williams was ‘demonstrably false’ as it was not backed up by phone records.

Supt Taylor alleges he was directed to brief journalists about a 2006 complaint from a Miss D of historic sexual abuse by Sgt McCabe. The DPP directed no prosecution in the case following a Garda investigation, saying there was no evidence of a crime.

Mr Fanning said that Mr Williams had been able to retrieve phone records from the two days when he had visited Miss D in March 2014 and these showed Mr Williams had not called Supt Taylor on either day.

Supt Taylor says Mr Williams phoned him on a Saturday in early 2014 and said, ‘Guess where I am’ and told him he planned to write a story about Miss D.

Mr Fanning said records for Supt Taylor’s phone, already in the tribunal’s possession, showed that the superintendent had not placed a phone call to Mr Williams on those days either.

The former Garda Press Office chief has claimed that he was ordered to tell the media that high-profile whistleblower Sgt McCabe was motivated by revenge to challenge the quashing of penalty points. Ex-Garda commissioner Martin Callinan denies allegations by Supt Taylor that he gave the press officer directions to brief the media negatively on Sgt McCabe.

In his second day of evidence, Supt Taylor was asked by Mr Fanning if he could identify even one instance when he had briefed Mr Williams adversely about Sgt McCabe. Supt Taylor replied: ‘I can’t. As I said in my evidence, this was opportunist in nature.

‘The opportunities presented themselves when they presented themselves... You could start off on one topic and migrate on to the McCabe topic.’

Mr Fanning asked: ‘Can you offer any explanation as to why these journalists refute your claim?’ Mr Taylor replied: ‘I can’t comment on other people’s evidence.’

Mr Fanning said: ‘I want to suggest that the only rational explanation is that your account is untrue.’ The witness replied: ‘I don’t accept that.’

Judge Charleton also grilled Supt Taylor about why he told Sgt McCabe a high-level file was being kept on him ‘without any evidence at all’ of this.

Supt Taylor admitted he had told the Garda whistleblower that there could be files held on him in Garda headquarters, in the Crime and Security division.

However, Supt Taylor said he had no firm knowledge of this.

Judge Charleton, the chairman of the tribunal, queried if Supt Taylor had been trying to wind up Sgt McCabe. Judge Charleton said a Garda file did not mean there was a conspiracy theory at work. And he said no file had ever been found by the tribunal in the Crime and Security section.

‘What were you talking about, what were you trying to convey?’ he asked. ‘To put it mildly, we’ve spent a lot of time and money on this investigation, including me going to Garda headquarters... do you still think some file is there? What led you to feel entitled to make an allegation without any evidence at all?’

Supt Taylor replied: ‘It was my understanding.’

Judge Charleton said files were only kept in Crime and Security if they needed to be protected from hackers, such as in the case of files about terrorist groups.

‘I’m just wondering if you were trying to wind him [Sgt McCabe] up? He was wound up without being told he had some file in Crime and Security, like some kind of leading terrorist?’

Supt Taylor replied: ‘I was not suggesting he was a terrorist, I was trying to assist him.’