‘COWARDLY CAMPAIGN TO RUIN ME’

The full shocking allegations of Garda HQ role in campaign to smear McCabe Intelligence f iles and hundreds of texts on whistleblower Varadkar fury at Judas slur Woman in Tusla f ile will testify at tribunal if asked

THE Protected Disclosure of Maurice McCabe, revealed for the first time in today’s Irish Mail on Sunday, alleges detailed efforts by An Garda Síochána to ‘destroy’ the Sergeant ‘in a cowardly and covert manner’.

The document, submitted to the Justice Minister last year, is at the heart of a controversy that is set to topple a Taoiseach and almost triggered a general election.

It recounts a three-hour meeting between Garda whistleblowers Sergeant McCabe and Superintendent Dave Taylor. It alleges:

Supt Taylor told Sgt McCabe that he had been instructed to send ‘hundreds of text messages’ to Garda management and members of the media perpetrating the alleged smear campaign against the Sergeant.

A number of separate intelligence files

on Sgt McCabe existed within the Garda hierarchy.

One of these files was named after the grandson of a senior Garda officer.

An officer in Garda HQ was dedicated to oversee Sgt McCabe’s use of the Garda computer system Pulse.

Supt Taylor told Sgt McCabe that he had spoken to a spiritual person two weeks before looking for forgiveness.

Supt Taylor, this week cleared of leaking information to a journalist, was told by a colleague that if he ‘slipped out’ and retired, all the charges would ‘go away’.

Separately, the MoS can reveal that the young woman at the centre of the original allegations against Sgt McCabe is willing to give evidence at the forthcoming Charleton tribunal, which will investigate Sgt McCabe and Supt Taylor’s Protected Disclosures and issues regarding an alleged smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.

A solicitor for the woman, now in her 20s, confirmed that the woman, who plans to sue the Child and Family Agency Tusla over its handling of her case, is also demanding a copy of all the Tusla files relating to this situation.

The woman, a daughter of a former colleague of Sgt McCabe’s, made allegations against Sgt McCabe about an incident alleged to have happened when she was aged six. These were investigated, and the DPP later found they did not form grounds for prosecution.

Sgt McCabe’s Protected Disclosure – made in September 2016 before the full details of Tusla and the HSE’s role in spreading the vile allegation became clear – details how Supt Taylor admitted his role in an alleged smear campaign against Sgt McCabe at the meeting between the two, at Supt Taylor’s house last September in which he said the intention was to ‘bury McCabe’.

It also chronicles Sgt McCabe’s concerns about further harassment, with him speaking of his ‘fear and worry’ about a campaign to ‘vilify’ him. Sgt McCabe writes in his disclosure: ‘He [Dave Taylor] said that he was involved in sending hundreds of text messages about me...

‘He stated that his three phones were seized from him under warrant and that these phones would show all the text messages.’

The MoS understands that Supt Taylor has not had his phones returned, even though the DPP cleared him of separate charges last week.

The mobile phones are said to be central to proving the allegations of the two gardaí about their superiors.

Sgt McCabe also reveals his lack of trust in the Garda Commissioner: ‘I cannot reasonably be expected to serve under Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.’

The document also includes deeply disturbing claims that have not been published until now.

Sgt McCabe writes: ‘He told me there were a number of intelligence files on me in Garda headquarters and I should look for them under disclosure.’

Then the document reveals an even more bizarre and upsetting detail. ‘There is one file with Crime and Security [Special Branch] and another file is on a special computer at Garda HQ. He stated that this latter file is named [child’s name redacted],’ he writes.

The disclosure alleges this child’s name was chosen as a file name as it is the name of a senior garda’s grandson.

Though several claims have emerged in recent weeks this is the first time the detail and gravity of the alleged harassment of Sgt McCabe have been revealed in his own words. Under legal advice the MoS has not published many passages in the document as they make grave allegations against serving members of the force.

Sgt McCabe continues in the docu[name

If Taylor ‘slipped out’ charges would ‘go away’

ment: ‘He [Supt Taylor] told me that he was informed by [name of Garda deleted] that if he “slipped out” and retired, all this, ie his discipline charges would “go away” and that of Garda deleted] could facilitate it. Supt Taylor adamantly refused to adopt such a course.’

Supt Taylor was reinstated to the Gardaí this week and is now working with the Traffic Corps. He was arrested at his home nearly two years ago on unconnected charges. The DPP declared there was no case to answer. According to Sgt McCabe’s disclosure the two men are reconciled. Sgt McCabe goes on to detail some of the information Supt Taylor told him at a meeting.

Supt Taylor told Sgt McCabe of a

‘sustained campaign… to destroy my character.’

‘He [Supt Taylor] admitted that he himself was involved in this campaign to destroy me and the common intention was to “bury McCabe”.

‘While I was angry and disappointed to hear of his involvement, I didn’t show it…,’ he writes.

Supt Taylor has also made a Protected Disclosure to the Government. It also carries grave allegations about the conduct of the Garda force.

Sgt McCabe writes: ‘The above is what Supt Taylor told me in his house, in the presence of his wife Michelle. I made notes of the meeting with the knowledge and consent of Supt Taylor.’

It emerges from the document that Sgt McCabe is traumatised by the treatment he has received in the Gardaí. This predates his discovery of a Tusla file containing false allegations of child sex abuse.

Sgt McCabe writes: ‘My reaction is one of fear and worry in relation to my continued status as a member of An Garda Síochána. I now know for certain what I had long suspected. I was the object of a sustained campaign over eight years.’

He adds that Garda officers ‘set out to vilify and discredit me rather than investigate the matters... found by the O’Higgins Commission to be valid and serious complaints’.

He goes on: ‘Supt Taylor told me that he was so sorry for what he had done to me. He stated that he contacted a spiritual person two weeks ago [before last year’s meeting] looking for forgiveness.’

It is understood Supt Taylor met a clergyman. Sgt McCabe writes that he: ‘Told me that he had destroyed and ruined me… I could see he was remorseful for the harm he had caused to me and my family and I told him that I forgave him because I believed his apology to be genuine.’

A public tribunal of inquiry – led by Supreme Court Judge Peter Charleton – will investigate the Protected Disclosures and the fresh allegations surrounding Tusla’s role, and the Government’s mishandling of these revelations, is expected to begin shortly.