I never said McCabe was not to be trusted

But Callinan did warn against sergeant appearing at PAC

EX-GARDA chief Martin Callinan has said it was ‘false’ to claim that he said Maurice McCabe was not to be trusted and that the Public Accounts Committee could be in trouble if the Garda whistleblower appeared before it.

But he agreed that he told PAC chairman John McGuinness it would not be appropriate for the sergeant to appear before his committee.

The Disclosures Tribunal heard that Mr McGuinness had said Mr Callinan had attempted to ‘warn him off’ allowing Sgt McCabe to appear before the committee, saying he was not to be trusted and that the deputy and PAC would end up in serious trouble.

‘That’s completely and utterly false,’ said Mr Callinan.

Deputy McGuinness had told the tribunal that, on the day after Mr Callinan’s PAC appearance, they met in a car park at Newland’s Cross, west Dublin.

The inquiry heard that Mr McGuinness has said that the then commissioner suggested Sgt McCabe had sexually abused an individual. Mr Callinan said: ‘That’s absolutely false. I never, under any circumstances, said anything like that.’

Mr Callinan also said Mr McGuinness appeared to know about the abuse allegations, and that the deputy had asked if Sgt McCabe’s complaints were due to the file being sent to the DPP.

Mr Calllinan also said he wanted urgently to tell Mr McGuinness that he did not think the PAC was the appropriate place for Sgt McCabe’s complaints to be heard. He said the meeting in the car park was not clandestine and that the venue was arranged because Mr McGuinness was in a hurry to get home to Kilkenny.

He accepted that his evidence was at odds with that of his ‘accusers’, but insisted: ‘I am telling the truth.’

Counsel for the tribunal has listed evidence given by Mr McGuinness as well as Fine Gael TD John Deasy, Comptroller and Auditor General Séamus McCarthy, RTÉ journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes and well-known solicitor Gerald Kean.

All of them had told the tribunal that, to varying extents, the former commissioner had told them Sgt McCabe was not to be trusted.

Mr Callinan also said that it was ‘absolutely not the case’ that press officer Superintendent David Taylor was briefed by him to brief the media that the whistleblower was motivated by revenge or maliciousness.

And he said he had not told Supt Taylor to draw journalists’ attention to the historic sexual abuse allegation.

Supt Taylor’s protected disclosure, in which he alleged he had been directed to carry out a smear campaign, led to the establishment of the tribunal – which is exploring whether such a campaign was orchestrated against Sgt McCabe.

‘That’s absolutely false’