McCabe smeared through a series of ‘nods and winks’ – Charleton report

FORMER Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and Garda Press Officer Dave Taylor carried out a ‘campaign of calumny’ against whistleblower Maurice McCabe, the damning report of the Disclosures Tribunal has found.

The report by tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Peter Charleton, said the ex-Garda chief was ‘actively aided’ by Superintendent Taylor, whose co-operation had evolved out of their cheek-by-jowl working relationship.

The report found Sgt McCabe was a ‘genuine person’ who at all times has ‘had the interests of the people of Ireland uppermost in his mind’.

It found he regarded those interests as ‘superior to any loyalty’ which he had to the police force of the State.

‘Neither interest should ever be in conflict,’ it said.

And last night Sgt McCabe said that he was astonished, but not surprised, by the finding that former Garda Commissioner Callinan and Supt Taylor worked together to smear him.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time, Sgt McCabe said: ‘It’s an astonishing finding, but from the very start of the enquiry I knew they were involved in it, so it didn’t come as a major surprise to me, but it’s hard to take,’ he said.

The Disclosures Tribunal investigated allegations that Garda chiefs orchestrated a smear campaign, including false sex abuse claims, against Sgt McCabe – a scandal which almost brought down the fragile minority Government last year.

Supt Taylor, who worked for the press office between 2012 and 2014, had claimed he was ordered by Mr Callinan to negatively brief journalists about Sgt McCabe.

The extensive interim report said it did not accept the evidence of Supt Taylor that he was given specific instructions by Mr Callinan to spread the false sex allegations. It described his evidence as ‘daft’.

It also labelled Supt Taylor as a witness whose ‘credibility was completely undermined by his own bitterness’.

It added: ‘The truth is that Supt Taylor completely understated his own involvement in a campaign of calumny against Maurice McCabe.

‘He claimed, for the first time, while giving evidence to the tribunal that he was acting under orders. That was not the case.

‘The tribunal is convinced that he pursued a scheme that somehow evolved out of his cheek-by-jowl working relationship with Commissioner Callinan.

‘Their plan was that there was to be much nodding and winking and references to a historic claim of sexual abuse while, at the same time, saying that the Director of Public Prosecutions had ruled that even if the central allegation did not have credibility issues, what was described did not amount to an offence of sexual assault or even an assault.’

Last night Sgt McCabe said that he, his wife Lorraine and their family were ‘delighted’.

‘We are so thrilled it’s out because it means for us, it’s over. I can get back to my normal job,’ he said.

The report also found that there was no credible evidence that former Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, who was Mr Callinan’s successor, played any part in the campaign orchestrated by Mr Callinan and Mr Taylor.

‘All of the evidence is to the contrary in fact,’ it said.

‘One of the first things she did was to get rid of Supt Taylor, the incumbent press officer.

‘She did this because she neither trusted him nor liked him. She reached out to Maurice McCabe and attempted to solve the workplace-related issues which surrounded him.’

It further stated that it was also ‘improbable that she did not have an inkling at the very least about Commissioner Callinan’s views’.

The report also slammed public relations speak, stating that public life is dominated by spin.

‘This is a hideous development in Irish public life,’ it added.

‘Plain speaking by those who know what they are talking about is the only acceptable way to address the Irish people.’

‘Undermined by his own bitterness’

‘I can get back to my normal job’