McCabe was a ‘thorn in side’, says garda who probed sex assault claim
THE senior garda who investigated an allegation of sexual assault against Sgt Maurice McCabe said the whistleblower later became a thorn in his side.
Supt Noel Cunningham told the Disclosures Tribunal he believed Sgt McCabe “had an input” into a series of complaints against him in subsequent years.
But he denied these complaints prompted him not to respond to an August 2013 letter from Tusla official Keara McGlone seeking clarification about an incorrect allegation of sexual abuse included on a Tusla file.
Counsel for the tribunal, Pat Marrinan, said there was an implication Supt Cunningham did not respond to the letter as he wanted it to “fester” in the Tusla file where it would ultimately cause difficulty for Sgt McCabe.
But the superintendent rejected this and insisted the reason he had not responded was that he had been on leave when it arrived and was busy with more pressing issues when he returned to work.
Supt Cunningham said he put the letter in a file he had kept, for sensitivity reasons, in a locked cabinet, but subsequently forgot about it.
He described this as “very unfortunate” and said Tusla never followed up with him.
Incorrect
Ms McGlone has previously told the tribunal that had Supt Cunningham responded to her, an incorrect allegation against Sgt McCabe of digital rape would not have ended up being referred to gardaí in 2014.
The allegation was included in a Tusla file after a counsellor made a major error in a report she forwarded to the child and family agency after giving counselling to a woman known as Ms D in 2013.
Ms D, the daughter of a garda, alleged in 2006 she was “dry humped” by Sgt McCabe years earlier when she was aged six or seven. The complaint was investigated by Supt Cunningham, who was then an inspector, and resulted in no prosecution. Supt Cunningham said that despite knowing Sgt McCabe and Ms D’s father well, he was “completely neutral” in his investigation.
The tribunal heard he told Rhona Murphy, a HSE social worker, it would be a difficult investigation because Ms D was “spinning different stories”.
In a report to Rory Hayden, State solicitor for Cavan, Supt Cunningham made reference to an incident involving Sgt McCabe and Ms D’s father.
Mr D had been at a funeral and was drinking with colleagues afterwards when a young man from the area committed suicide. They arrived at the scene and were described as being “highly emotional and intoxicated”. Sgt McCabe was the sergeant in charge of the scene and had to remove Mr D and his colleagues.
Sgt McCabe subsequently made a complaint about the incident, resulting in Mr D being removed from a crime unit and put on uniformed duties.
Ms D made a complaint to the Garda Ombudsman (Gsoc) in 2014 about the conduct of the sexual assault investigation. It was not upheld.
The tribunal heard that in a statement to Gsoc, Supt Cunningham said he had been subject to several complaints and investigations, emanating from the Bailieborough area in Co Cavan, none of which had been upheld.
“There were complaints which I believe Maurice McCabe had an input into,” he said.
Supt Cunningham insisted he had “no axe to grind” with Sgt McCabe and had never fallen out with him.