McCabe ‘will not withdraw claim Nóirín orchestrated RTÉ report’
‘He reported what he was told’
PENALTY points whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe has said he will not withdraw a claim that former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan planned, orchestrated and influenced RTÉ reports.
Sgt McCabe had based this claim on ‘impeccable’ information he said he received from John Barrett, head of Garda human resources.
Sgt McCabe described the broadcasts in May 2016 as ‘disgraceful’, and said Mr Barrett told him the broadcasts were influenced by the commissioner’s office.
But Mr Barrett has now told the tribunal that he never said this, and had no knowledge of any such actions by Ms O’Sullivan or of any leak from Garda headquarters.
Crime correspondent Paul Reynolds reported on radio and television that Judge Kevin O’Higgins had upheld a number of Sgt McCabe’s claims of serious flaws and failures in Garda investigations, but had rejected his claims of Garda corruption.
Sgt McCabe has told tribunal investigators that the reports were biased against him, that they had branded him a ‘liar’ and ‘irresponsible’ and had sought to minimise the findings made against the Garda force.
Mr Barrett said yesterday that Sgt McCabe made no complaint about the broadcasts when the pair met shortly after the broadcasts, and he said his minutes of their meeting – which were signed by Sgt McCabe – backed this up. ‘I have no recollection at all of dealing with this issue,’ Mr Barrett said. ‘I did not make such a remark.’ The Disclosures Tribunal is investigating whether a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe was directed by senior gardaí.
Michael McDowell SC, for Sgt McCabe, was asked yesterday by counsel for Ms O’Sullivan if his client was now withdrawing the suggestion that she had orchestrated RTÉ’s coverage of the unpublished O’Higgins report.
Mr McDowell replied: ‘Sgt McCabe is not in a position to withdraw anything. He’s faithfully reported to the tribunal what he was told by John Barrett.’
Earlier, during his third day in the witness box, crime correspondent Paul Reynolds continued to insist that his RTÉ broadcasts were accurate, fair and impartial, and were based solely on Judge O’Higgins’s report.
John Ferry BL for Supt Taylor, said Mr Reynolds was the last journalist on his client’s list of 11, whom he said he negatively briefed about Sgt McCabe.
Mr Ferry insisted that Mr Reynolds had been part of the smear campaign, even if he was not aware of this at the time.
Mr Reynolds replied: ‘He may be the most brilliant spook in the world, and I may be the most gullible man not to realise that I was being taken for a patsy. But the reality is it did not happen.
Also giving testimony earlier, Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheahan denied telling a colleague that whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was a ‘paedophile’. The former group political editor accused former Sunday Independent editor Ann Harris of ‘headline hunting’.
Ms Harris has previously told the tribunal that Mr Sheahan made that allegation to her following a news conference in September 2014. She said she took this to be a ‘gesture of collegiality’ to warn her off running stories about Sgt McCabe. Mr Sheahan said: ‘I would attest I did the exact opposite.’ He said he was advocating positive coverage of Sgt McCabe.