'Ten years of hell' McCabe describes legal struggle

Whistleblower Maurice McCabe said he went through “10 years of hell” but is confident the issues he highlighted within the State's police force won't happen again. The former sergeant opened up to Ivan Yeats on The Hard Shoulder this week.

The former Garda Sergeant and his wife Lorraine gave an extensive interview covering his early career, the reason he lifted the lid on system failures within An Garda Síochána and his life now.

The Cavan ex-Garda's revelations were eventually followed by the resignation of two Justice ministers, the premature departure of two Garda Commissioners, three public inquiries; The Guerin Report, the Higgins Commission and The Charlton Tribunal and a change in Garda practice.

The Charleton Tribunal - which was set up to investigate whether there was a smear campaign orchestrated against Sgt McCabe - found the Maurice McCabe was "repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer".

Last year, the State and Tusla reached a settlement with Mr McCabe in a High Court case. He took the action after a file was created by the child and family agency containing false allegations against him.

In his radio interview with Mr Yates on Newstalk, Mr McCabe recalled how, when serving as a sergeant at Bailieborough, Cavan, he became concerned about the force’s handling of some suspected criminal offences in late 2007. Most of his allegations related to alleged failures in a number of Garda investigations and the handling of penalty points.

Speaking to Mr Yeats, the whistleblower voiced his faith in the current Garda institution and his view that measures taken since he spoke out have transformed the organisation: “I think the oversight is in now at the moment - because every rank is inspected now and every rank has to go through each incident. There are daily accountability meetings and weekly accountability meetings and I don't think anything nowadays can fall through the cracks,” he said.

Mr McCabe said the issues he raised were very simple: “There has to be greater supervision and scrutiny – and it wasn't done at the time,” he told Mr Yeats.

He described his legal battle saying “It was an extremely tough few years” and continued “there was always something coming”. In the course of the interview his wife, Lorraine, said of her husband: “He is very fair, to a fault. He sees the best in everybody.”

Mr McCabe said his accusations were never against any individual but against the system, pointing the finger firmly at what he saw as “a lack of accountability within the organisation”.

To listen to the inteview in full, click here.