'Chasm' opens between McCabe and Taylor accounts

The former head of the Garda press office is set to deny ever telling garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe about an alleged smear campaign using text messages written by the former garda commissioner Martin Callinan, writes Gerard Cunningham.

Sgt McCabe has told the Disclosures Tribunal that he was “100 percent” that Superintendent David Taylor told him that Mr Callinan compiled hundreds of text messages alleging the sergeant was a sexual abuser, which were then forwarded to journalists.

Tara Burns SC, on behalf of Supt Taylor, said the superintendent accepted that he had met with Sgt McCabe, but did not agree that he had forwarded "hundreds" of text messages related to sexual assault allegations made against Sgt McCabe.

The Mountnugent man said that he did not take verbatim notes of the first meeting with Supt Taylor on 20 September 2016, which lasted three hours. But he said he did note the key points and said the things he was told were "distressing" and "hard to take."

The DPP directed no charged against Sgt McCabe following a garda investigation of complaints by Miss D in 2006, saying there was no evidence of abuse. A "copy/paste error" in 2013 led to the creation of a Tusla file on Sgt McCabe containing more serious allegations from an unrelated case.

Sgt McCabe said that the day after he first met Supt Taylor, before making a protected disclosure, he had checked again with Supt Taylor that there were hundreds of messages.

Ms Burns said that there were hundreds of texts between Supt Taylor and senior garda management, but they were not in relation to the allegations. 

Messages sent to Mr Callinan and to his then Deputy Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan related to media reports about Sgt McCabe, she said. Supt Taylor was not saying that Mr Callinan created text messages about abuse allegations.

"He [Taylor] 100 percent said to me that Martin Callinan compiled all the text messages and I got them and sent them on," Sgt McCabe said.

Tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton commented that “a chasm” had now opened up between the position of Sgt McCabe and Supt Taylor as to what had been said during the September 2016 meeting. 

“He absolutely said it,” Sgt McCabe said. He added that it would be hard to invent such a story, and he had been "very accurate in relation to the protected disclosure”. 

“I didn't want to put in one word that was wrong,” he said. The sergeant said he went back to Supt Taylor the following morning specifically to verify that issue.

Ms Burns said that when Supt Taylor called Ms O'Sullivan "the pusher", he meant she was pushing for Supt Taylor to be prosecuted. 

In answer to questions from the chairman, Ms Burns said it was Supt Taylor's position that former commissioner O'Sullivan "knew everything that was going on" in relation to Sgt McCabe. She said she would seek further instructions on whether there was an officer in Garda HQ monitoring Sgt McCabe's Pulse activity, and there was a garda intelligence file called "Oisin" on the sergeant.

Sgt McCabe told Fíonán Ó Muircheartaigh BL on behalf of journalist Alison O'Reilly, that in 2014 she "informed me there was a rumour going round that I sexually assaulted a girl.”

“I said no I didn't. I think she told me well everybody had it, I said no it didn't happen. I think that was the end of the conversation," Sgt McCabe said.

Sean Gillane SC for RTE said numerous other news outlets had reported on leaked copies of the O'Higgins report before RTE. 

Sgt McCabe said that he thought an RTE report on Morning Ireland about the report was a "nasty article" and his children heard it on the bus on the way to school and rang home asking about it.

Mr Gillane told the chairman that RTE rejected the proposition that Ms O'Sullivan influenced or attempted to influence their coverage of the leaked report.

Paul McDermott SC repeated an earlier apology on behalf of Tusla to Sgt McCabe over mistakes make by the agency, as he said he was not sure if the sergeant was present when he made an earlier apology during closing submissions on the first module.

"I really appreciate that and we accept it. Thanks Mr McDermott," Sgt McCabe said.

Shane Murphy SC on behalf of An Garda Siochána said that correspondence showed it was Sgt McCabe who first suggested that the full directions from the DPP should be shown to the D family in 2008. 

On Monday, Sgt McCabe said that the suggestion had come from Supt Clancy, who asked him for a written report. He said he could have spoken before then to Supt Clancy following some incidents with Mr and Mrs D.

Sgt McCabe said that he had a recording which he would give to the tribunal which "should explain everything."

Mr Darren Lenane SC said that the evidence of John McGuinness TD would be that Commissioner Callinan told him that Sgt McCabe had "abused his children."

Sgt McCabe is continuing his evidence to the tribunal this afternoon. He is being cross-examined by a number of barristers including lawyers representing Garda HQ.

 

Callinan wanted to 'bury' him

Yesterday (Monday), Sgt McCabe testified that he was told that former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was “obsessed” with him and wanted to “bury” him.

Giving evidence for the first time at the Disclosures Tribunal on Monday of this week, Sgt McCabe said that Superintendent Dave Taylor, the former press secretary, told him that he was ordered by Callinan to spread rumours that McCabe had been investigated for sexual assault.
Sgt McCabe said that Supt Taylor “was in bad shape” when he met him in 2016 and “you could see that he was distressed or stressed”.
“He kept saying I destroyed you. And I said I want to know what you did to me,” Sgt McCabe said.
The Mountnugent man said he was told there was an orchestrated campaign to destroy him “in the form of whispering, of phone calls, of texts”.
Supt Taylor told the sergeant this was done “on the authority” of ex-commissioner Martin Callinan, Sgt McCabe said.
Mr Taylor told the sergeant that he would receive text messages from Callinan and he would then forward these to journalists, the inquiry heard on Monday afternoon.
Mr Taylor also said he would always send the texts to Noirin O’Sullivan and she would reply “that’s perfect” and Mr Taylor would then send them on, Sgt McCabe told the tribunal.
Sgt McCabe said he was told that Ms O’Sullivan “was the pusher and she knew everything that was going on”.
Mr Callinan and Ms O’Sullivan deny the allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.
The sergeant told the tribunal that he met Supt Taylor at his house with his wife, while Supt Taylor had been temporarily suspended in September 2016.
He said Mr Taylor told him that there was a “constant obsession” with Sgt McCabe, and if an article or interview appeared about the sergeant, Martin Callinan would say: “Use your phone and do him down. He has to be buried.”
“Martin Callinan would encourage David Taylor to spread the rumours about me, the fact I had been investigated for sexual assault,” Sgt McCabe said.
The historic assault complaint in 2006 led to a Garda investigation and a recommendation from the DPP against a prosecution as there was no evidence any assault had taken place.
Sgt McCabe said he was told there was an intelligence file on him in Garda HQ and an officer was designated to monitor his activities on PULSE.
 

Upset

The tribunal had to adjourn briefly as Sgt McCabe became visibly upset as he recalled a meeting with Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness. After the break, Sgt McCabe said that Mr McGuinness told him that Commissioner Callinan had told him (Mr McGuinness) ‘McCabe was not to be trusted and that he had abused vulnerable children and his nieces’.
Sgt McCabe said he was “furious” when he spoke with Supt Taylor, and said that Supt Taylor could have stopped and said no at any time.
Sgt McCabe said that Supt Taylor’s wife Michelle Taylor told him that Supt Taylor had met “a spiritualist” and felt he had to confess what he had done. She told Sgt McCabe that they had believed all the allegations that they heard about him.
Sgt McCabe said that after the meeting, he “couldn’t get my head around hundreds of text messages”, and the next morning he contacted Supt Taylor again to confirm that there had been hundreds of text messages.
“He said to me, it could have been thousands,” Sgt McCabe said.
Tribunal barrister Pat Marrinan SC said that Supt Taylor will say there were no text messages and that the information was spread through word of mouth.
On September 26, 2016, Sgt McCabe made a protected disclosure about what he alleges Supt Taylor told him.