Former senator ‘failed’ by police inquiry into rape allegations, says watchdog
THE North’s policing watchdog has found former senator Máiría Cahill was “failed” by a “disjointed” investigation into allegations she was raped by a suspected IRA man.
The report by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman is unlikely to be published due to the sensitive nature of its contents.
However, in a statement the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire said the PSNI’s predecessor, the RUC, had information about the alleged abuse in 2000, 10 years before it began investigating.
He recommended four officers be disciplined for shortcomings.
One of the officers has since left the force and is unlikely to face any sanction.
Ms Cahill, a grand-niece of prominent Belfast republican Joe Cahill, told detectives in 2010 she had been sexually abused by Martin Morris in 1997 and 1998 when she was 16. He was later acquitted of rape and denies all wrongdoing.
Ms Cahill later alleged that in 2010 she was subjected to an IRA interrogation over her allegations. She also said she had several meetings with then Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams later that year.
Last night, Sinn Féin did not respond to requests for comment on the Ombudsman’s findings. Queries submitted to the party’s press office were not responded to.
Mr Adams has previously insisted the party did not engage in any cover-up of abuse. He also previously denied claims by Ms Cahill that she was subjected to an IRA “kangaroo court”. Speaking to the Irish Independent after receiving a disclosure letter from the Ombudsman, Ms Cahill said: “From the failure of the police to act on this information you can reasonably conclude children were potentially put at risk.”
Dr Maguire found that the PSNI investigation had failed the victims, but he did not support allegations that it chose not to arrest some of the individuals concerned because they were police informants or that the inquiry had been subject to political interference.
He was critical of the decision not to hold a serious case review and the circumstances of the police decision to split its investigation across two units – one which specialised in dealing with victims of sexual assault and one with experience in dealing with terrorist issues.
“I accept that police wanted to move quickly on the sexual allegations and to use their different expertise to maximum effect,” said Dr Maguire.
“While I do not agree that this led to evidence being diluted, it did bring about a disjointed approach by police in their investigations and their treatment of Ms Cahill.
“There is no evidence they considered any other approach, such as creating a team with the range of skills to investigate these matters as one case”.
Dr Maguire found that the PSNI had an inconsistent approach in its investigation of some of the people suspected of IRA membership, which in one case led to an individual not being arrested and questioned.
He found no evidence, however, that anyone had been protected from prosecution.
Dr Maguire also did not find evidence to support the allegation that the PSNI investigation became subject to adverse political interference.
His review did not support the suggestion that police inaction was such that Ms Cahill had to direct how the investigation progressed, but said its lack of a strategy for researching information already in the public domain contributed to her mounting concerns.
‘You can reasonably conclude children were put at risk’