Charleton fallout may continue for Callinan and Taylor
ACRITICISM of tribunals of inquiry is that, while their function is to discover facts, civil or criminal penalties do not automatically flow from their findings.
Very often in previous tribunals, the main damage done to those subject to adverse findings has been largely reputational.
In some instances, persons criticised have also had to pay all or a portion of their legal costs. People found to have not told the truth can be heavily penalised in the pocket.
It will soon fall to Mr Justice Peter Charleton to decide whether various witnesses at the Disclosures Tribunal are entitled to have their costs covered by the State.
Senior legal figures who have closely followed proceedings believe there is every chance former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan and his former press officer, Supt Dave Taylor, the two people most heavily criticised by the tribunal, will be hit with costs orders.
In his report this week, Mr Justice Charleton said truth was a paramount consideration in relation to costs. He pointed out that the law allows him to make costs orders against persons who, in the opinion of the tribunal, knowingly gave false or misleading information or failed to co-operate or provide assistance.
Mr Justice Charleton said he believed the testimony of four key witnesses who said Mr Callinan denigrated Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe in conversations with them, and rejected the former commissioner’s account.
In relation to Supt Taylor, the judge said he had the gravest difficulty in accepting his evidence as anything approximating to the truth.
However, the ramifications for the two men may well extend beyond damage to their reputations and a costs bill.
In Supt Taylor’s case it would be inconceivable if he were not to also now face a serious Garda disciplinary inquiry.
Another garda criticised by the Disclosures Tribunal, Keith Harrison, is currently facing such an inquiry.
It has been alleged by the force that adverse commentary about Garda Harrison by Mr Justice Charleton “would bring An Garda Síochána into disrepute” and that his conduct in a number of specific incidents was “unbecoming to a member”. It would not be difficult to imagine similar disciplinary allegations also now being laid against Supt Taylor.
While the superintendent could seek to retire to avoid such an outcome, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris can refuse such a retirement if there is a disciplinary issue.
Mr Callinan has been retired for the past four years and cannot be subject to any Garda sanction. However, legal sources say he faces the possibility of losing an indemnity granted to him by the State in a civil action being taken against him by Sgt McCabe for alleged misfeasance of public office.
This is one of several lawsuits filed by Sgt McCabe that look set to proceed now that the tribunal has completed its inquiries into the smear campaign against him.
In a damning report, Mr Justice Charleton found Mr Callinan engaged, with the aid of Supt Taylor, in a campaign of false and defamatory statements against the whistleblower.
It said Sgt McCabe was a genuine person who had the interests of the people of Ireland uppermost in his mind when he highlighted penalty points abuses and other policing shortcomings. But instead of being lauded by his then commissioner, he was targeted by “a frontal attack” during 2013 and 2014 to “head off” what Mr Callinan saw as “the undermining of standards of duty and loyalty to which he had devoted his career”.
Mr Callinan felt his rights as he saw them, both as data controller of Garda information and as commander of his subordinates, would be breached if Sgt McCabe appeared at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
In particular, the plan followed by Mr Callinan and Supt Taylor was to spread information about a historic allegation of child sexual assault.
The DPP found no offence of any kind had been disclosed against Sgt McCabe and that there was no basis for any prosecution.
Mr Callinan also told then PAC chairman John McGuinness that Sgt McCabe had abused his own children. Mr Callinan denied all of this and Supt Taylor downplayed his involvement, but the tribunal rejected their evidence.