Eleven years of reports, allegations and the long battle for justice
THE BEGINNING
JANUARY 2006 The Garda whistleblower saga started over a decade ago. Sergeant Maurice McCabe of Bailieborough Garda Station makes a complaint against a colleague that later results in a disciplinary sanction on that colleague. DECEMBER 2006 The same colleague who had been disciplined makes a criminal complaint against Sgt McCabe on behalf of his daughter, alleging sexually inappropriate behaviour. The allegation is investigated fully and the Director of Public Prosecutions concludes there are no grounds for a prosecution. The investigation takes a number of months.
2007-2008 Sgt McCabe becomes concerned about the force’s handling of suspected criminal offences. Sgt McCabe outlines concerns about Garda practice regarding two officers. He submits a file to Garda authorities alleging malpractice and corruption in his own division of Cavan-Monaghan. He later brings a series of complaints to the confidential recipient, the official tasked with processing garda grievances about the force. An investigation starts in May and in June 2008 Sgt McCabe transfers out of Bailieborough Garda Station.
INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS
OCTOBER 2010 Sgt McCabe meets with then assistant commissioner Derek Byrne and then chief superintendent Terry McGinn. The meeting is to inform him of the outcome of their investigation into 46 separate allegations made by him. Eleven of the allegations were upheld, 10 were being investigated, five had identified issues and the rest were not upheld. There is a confrontation between Mr Byrne and Sgt McCabe, in which Mr Byrne blocked his path and took two boxes of Pulse printouts from him. Sgt McCabe made a complaint to the Garda Commissioner in October 2010, disputing the findings of the Byrne-McGinn investigation, alleging assault against Mr Byrne and making further allegations of wrongdoing. Sgt McCabe later withdraws allegations of impropriety against Mr Byrne.
APRIL 2012 Sgt McCabe comes forward with concerns and allegations relating to the cancelling of penalty points by gardaí. He is supported in his allegations by Garda whistleblower John Wilson. Throughout the summer, his claims are dismissed until they are eventually raised by Deputy Mick Wallace in the Dáil. NOVEMBER 2012 Under increasing political pressure, then justice minister Alan Shatter orders an internal inquiry, to be chaired by Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahony, into penalty point allegations. APRIL 2013 An interim report by Mr O’Mahony on the practice of gardaí terminating penalty points sees three out of 113 Garda officers who cancelled points faced with disciplinary procedures. Garda management claim the report is a general vindication, but political supporters of Sgt McCabe argue that the report does not go far enough.
ALLEGATIONS RESURFACE
JULY 2013 With the penalty point row at the top of the current affairs agenda, in the background allegations of sexual assault against Sgt McCabe were again emerging. This time, a HSE counsellor notifies the HSE Child Protection Services, the precursor to Tusla, that a client she had been counselling disclosed to her that she had been sexually abused in childhood. According to the counsellor’s report – later proven to be mistaken – the complaint alleged digital penetration. Days after receiving the report, gardaí involved in the original investigation were contacted. But it has been reported that a formal Garda notification outlining details of the allegation was not sent to the superintendent of the district involved for another eight months. OCTOBER 2013 The Comptroller and Auditor General publishes a report on the penalty points scandal, supporting the claims of the whistleblowers. Mr Shatter criticises the whistleblowers in the Dáil, alleging they did not co-operate with the Garda investigations into their allegations that gardaí had corruptly terminated penalty points. This is disputed by the whistleblowers.
THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
JANUARY 23, 2014 The then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan appears before the Public Accounts Committee in January, 2014. He says it is ‘quite disgusting’ that out of a force of 13,000, two people are alleging ‘malpractice and corruption’ against their fellow officers. JANUARY 30, 2014 Sgt McCabe appears before the PAC. He impresses the committee with his evidence. FEBRUARY 2014 Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin announces he is in possession of documents that allege a series of murders, abductions and serious assaults that were not properly investigated. Mr Martin sends the dossier, compiled by Sgt McCabe, to Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Senior counsel Seán Guerin is appointed by the Government to conduct an independent review of Sgt McCabe’s allegations.
COMMISSIONER CALLINAN RETIRES
MARCH 2014 On the night of March 24, the then secretary general at the Department of Justice Brian Purcell arrives at Mr Callinan’s home. The Garda commissioner resigns the following day. He will later say that this visit was the ‘direct cause of his decision to retire’.
APRIL 2014 The Fennelly Commission of Investigation is launched into the recording of phone calls in Garda stations. It is also set to investigate the events leading up to the retirement of Mr Callinan as commissioner.
APRIL 7, 2014 An article is published in the Irish Independent stating that a young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted as a child by a serving garda claims her case was flawed. The girl in question is understood to be the same girl who made allegations against Sgt McCabe in 2006 and repeated those allegations to her counsellor in 2013.
MAY 2014 The Guerin Report is published. It found Mr Callinan and then justice minister Alan Shatter failed in their duties to properly investigate allegations of corruption and malpractice in the force. The minister resigns after reading three of 20 chapters of the report. The findings against the Justice Minister are later quashed by the High Court.
MISTAKE DISCOVERED
MAY 2014 The original HSE counsellor, who copied and pasted the serious sex abuse allegations into Sgt McCabe’s file, contacts Tusla, set up only in the previous January. She admits she made a ‘cut and paste’ administrative error in her report by including a false allegation of digital penetration. A social worker immediately recommends the Garda notification on Sgt McCabe be amended, and updated with this information. An amended Garda notification is sent to the relevant Garda superintendent. It won’t be the only shocking error to be made by Tusla.
DECEMBER 2015 More than 18 months after the mistake has been discovered, Sgt Mccabe receives a letter from the State agency stating that he had been under investigation for abusing a child, which included the use of digital penetration. Sgt Mccabe vehemently denies the claim, which is the first time he has been contacted directly by any State agency in relation to it.
MAY 9, 2016 rTÉ’s crime correspondent Paul reynolds is given a leaked account of a report by Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins ‘in which Sgt Mccabe was branded a liar and irresponsible’. in his commission of inquiry, Judge Peter charleton will examine who was the source for the broadcast.
MAY 11, 2016 The report by Justice Kevin O’Higgins is published. The commission finds that Mr Mccabe had ‘performed a genuine public service’ and ‘acted out of genuine and legitimate concerns’. it highlights flaws in policing in the cavan-Monaghan division caused by human error. However, it found no evidence to support claims of Garda corruption in the district. While some of Mr Mccabe’s complaints are upheld, others are deemed to be either unfounded or overstated.
ALLEGATIONS WITHDRAWN
JUNE 2016 Sgt Mccabe is informed that the child sex allegation was an error and no such complaint had been made. a social worker says the agency was obliged to investigate the allegations – but said a mistake had been made in previous correspondence. ‘i can confirm to you that no allegation of digital penetration has been made in relation to your client,’ says the social worker. instead the girl had alleged inappropriate contact to her counsellor. Sgt Mccabe requests that all copies of records made on and his family be released to him. The woman who made the allegations informs Tusla in august she does not want to pursue the matter any further. JANUARY 2017 after requesting copies of every Tusla record relating to him and his family, Sgt Mccabe receives a file of the various, incorrect notifications to the gardaí. also in January, Tusla writes to Minister for children Katherine Zappone. Ms Zappone meets Sgt and Mrs Mccabe on Wednesday, January 25.
FEBRUARY 8, 2017 Labour leader brendan Howlin tells the Dáil he was contacted by a journalist who told him ‘he had direct knowledge of calls made by the then-Garda commissioner to journalists during 2013 and 2014 in the course of which the commissioner made very serious allegations of sexual crimes having been committed by Garda Maurice Mccabe’. FEBRUARY 9, 2017 rTÉ’s Prime Time airs the explosive Tusla errors.