Young woman at centre of abuse allegations is willing to give evidence to tribunal if required to

THE young woman at the centre of the original sex abuse allegations against Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe, will give evidence at the forthcoming tribunal of inquiry. The woman is very concerned at how she has been dragged into the crisis – and is set to sue Tusla over how it handled her situation.

She is requesting all files the Child and Family Agency hold on her, as well as the letter that informed Gardaí of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ decision to not prosecute.

This weekend a solicitor for the young woman said: ‘If she is requested to be there [the tribunal] she will be there… She has concerns about why her complaint was never put on Pulse [the Garda computer system].

‘She is going to demand to get all her files from Tusla to ascertain how all this happened. She is very angry that this is being brought up.

‘In 2007 it wasn’t the norm for the guards to show people the letter from the DPP as to why their case was not being prosecuted. She will be looking for this letter.’

The original allegations were made – through her father – in 2006 when she was 14, but the alleged incident happened when she was six years old. The allegations were investigated and it was found there was no grounds for a prosecution.

The young woman came to the attention of Tusla after she went to a HSE counselling service in Cavan in 2013. The appointment was made by her mother and the young woman cannot recall the name of the person she met that day. However, after their one and only meeting the counsellor notified Tusla in August 2013 that a client had disclosed that she had been sexually abused in childhood. In her report to Tusla the counsellor included an error that included much more serious allegations. Nine months later the counsellor contacted Tusla and admitted an ‘administrative error’ in her report.

In early May 2014 a letter was sent to the woman from Tusla about the false allegation.

The solicitor said her father went to the gardaí about the letter but when her parents phoned the woman she said she had never made the more serious allegations.

‘The young woman was never interviewed by Tusla and Tusla never contacted her,’ her solicitor said. ‘She did not refuse to go to any meetings.’