‘I never got a negative briefing on Sgt McCabe’
Conor Lally ‘surprised’ to be named by Supt Taylor
A CRIME reporter has said he was ‘very surprised’ to read that the former head of the Garda press office said he had negatively briefed him against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.
Conor Lally, security and crime editor with the Irish Times, said the first he heard of this was in the opening statement by counsel for the Disclosures Tribunal.
He stated: ‘No Garda member, past or present, has ever briefed me negatively about Sgt McCabe.’
Mr Lally’s evidence echoed that of the Irish Daily Star’s Mick O’Toole and RTÉ’s John Burke, who have also denied Superintendent David Taylor’s claims.
Mr Lally said he first heard a rumour about Sgt McCabe in 2010 or 2011, to the effect that there was a historical complaint made against the sergeant, that it had been investigated and the DPP had ‘thrown it out’.
He said the rumour was a ‘dead piece of information from the off’ – because Sgt McCabe had been completely exonerated.
Mr Lally said he was committed to the protection of his sources.
But he said it was told to him ‘in the context that Sgt McCabe had fallen out with An Garda Síochána, and this appeared to be the start of it all’. He continued: ‘Nobody was trying to drive home a message that he was a bad guy, or that I had to be wary of him.’
Earlier, the editor of the Irish Mail on Sunday, Conor O’Donnell, said the paper had ‘a duty to investigate’ an allegation which had been made against Sgt McCabe by a woman known as Ms D.
Mr O’Donnell said his crime reporter Debbie McCann went to Ms D’s house to seek an interview but ‘nothing came of it, and we printed nothing’.
Mr O’Donnell told the tribunal he gave the go-ahead for Ms McCann to call to Ms D’s house. But he said once Ms D’s mother said the family didn’t want to speak to the paper, that was the end of the matter.
He added that if the interview had been granted, the paper would have asked Sgt McCabe for his response, before any article was written.
Mr O’Donnell as the tribunal was giving continues evidence to investigate whether a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe was orchestrated by senior gardaí. He said he had not involved group editor Sebastian Hamilton in the visit to Ms D’s house. He said he has editorial control over his own paper.
In his evidence, Mr Hamilton said that his chief consideration was ‘to defend the principle of protecting journalists’ sources’.
And he rejected a claim that the Mail newspaper group had refused to cooperate with the tribunal.
He added that if there was a ‘perception of a failure to give information’, it was because he was concerned about the protection of his journalists’ sources.
Referring to the time it took the Mail newspapers to respond to the tribunal, tribunal counsel Kathleen Leader said this ‘reticent approach’ by the newspaper group appeared to be ‘inconsistent’ with a wish to cooperate with the tribunal.
Mr Hamilton said he supported the work of tribunals, but he said he had not been aware of Ms McCann’s visit to Ms D’s home.
He added: ‘I hadn’t published anything negative, I didn’t feel the Mail was implicated in any way.’
‘It was the first I heard of it’