Superintendent’s wife thought he was ‘going to die’

AT THE height of Superintendent Dave Taylor’s troubles at work, his wife thought he was “going to die” as money problems compounded serious career worries.

Michelle Taylor, wife of the man who headed the Garda press office and led a year-long “smear campaign” against well-known whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe, bore out the 14 hours of evidence given across three days by her husband. She had helped to set up a cathartic meeting between Sgt McCabe and her husband in September 2016, and was there for all of it.

She had known about the smear campaign while it was going on, and echoed Mr Taylor’s account of filling in journalists on the “back story”. The claim was that Sgt McCabe was “acting on revenge” in his allegations about the flaws in the penalty points system because he had been investigated for sex offences in 2006.

When the extraordinary meeting happened, her husband had been suspended for well over a year. She was “very, very worried” about him and that he wasn’t “in a very good place” and she feared he might even die.

Ms Taylor backed up her husband’s account that he told Sgt McCabe that he sent hundreds of texts to Martin Callinan and Nóirín O’Sullivan. He never texted smear claims directly to journalists as told by Sgt McCabe and recounted by writer Mick Clifford in a book on the subject.

She said “he’s not much of a texter” and also denied that he used the word “pusher” in reference to Ms O’Sullivan’s role in the smear campaign.

Mr Taylor’s marathon cross-questioning, now almost complete, has been an ordeal even for a highranking policeman of 36 years’ experience.

Overall, he has struggled to explain the thrust of his written evidence. He was also closely questioned by tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton, who sometimes expressed surprise. Eventually, the judge told Supt Taylor: “You’re not answering any of my questions, Superintendent. Literally none of them. You are avoiding every single one.”

In June 2014, he was very disappointed to be moved from the press office to the Garda traffic unit. Supt Taylor acknowledged Ms O’Sullivan was not his “first choice” to succeed his old boss as commissioner. Predecessors often moved from the press post on promotion – but not him.

In 2015/2016, he was investigated for allegedly leaking sensitive information and suspended from work. At one stage, to his dismay, he was arrested and put in a cell.

Lawyers questioned Supt Taylor’s motivation for this change of heart. Supt Taylor insisted he was not seeking to protect himself but saw things differently “away from the hot house, and the influence of An Garda Síochána”.

It is notable that, of 11 journalists he has named as recipients of his smears against Sgt McCabe, four have insisted that did not happen. Seven others have failed to back up his version of events.