Tribunal slams top gardai for smear campaign

A tribunal investigating allegations that top police officers in Ireland orchestrated a smear campaign has found senior gardai officers had a plan to spread historic claims of sexual abuse about another officer.

The Disclosures Tribunal found former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was part of a “campaign of calumny” against whistleblower Maurice McCabe and he was actively aided by his former press officer Superintendent David Taylor.

The tribunal said it was convinced Superintendent Taylor “pursued a scheme that somehow evolved out of his cheek-by-jowl” working relationship with Mr Callinan.

The report found Sgt McCabe was a “genuine person” who at all times has “had the interests of the people of Ireland uppermost in his mind”.

It found he regarded those interest as “superior to any loyalty” which he had to the police force of the State.

“Neither interest should ever be in conflict,” it said.

The Disclosures Tribunal investigated allegations that Garda chiefs orchestrated a smear campaign, including false sex abuse claims, against Sgt McCabe – a scandal which almost brought down Ireland’s fragile minority government last year.

Superintendent Taylor, who worked for the press office between 2012 and 2014, had claimed he was ordered by Mr Callinan to negatively brief journalists about Sgt McCabe.

The extensive interim report said it did not accept the evidence of Superintendent Taylor that he was given specific instructions by Mr Callinan to spread the false sex allegations and went on to described his evidence as “daft”.

It also labelled Superintendent Taylor as a witness whose “credibility was completely undermined by his own bitterness”.

It added: “The truth is that Superintendent David Taylor completely understated his own involvement in a campaign of calumny against Maurice McCabe.

“He claimed, for the first time, while giving evidence to the tribunal that he was acting under orders. That was not the case.

“The tribunal is convinced that he pursued a scheme that somehow evolved out of his cheek-by-jowl working relationship with Commissioner Callinan.

“Their plan was that there was to be much nodding and winking and references to a historic claim of sexual abuse while, at the same time, saying that the Director of Public Prosecutions had ruled that even if the central allegation did not have credibility issues, what was described did not amount to an offence of sexual assault or even an assault.”

It praised Sgt McCabe for doing a “considerable service” by bringing the matters of senior gardai manipulating and abusing penalty points to the attention of the public.

“He has done so not out of a desire to inflate his public profile, but out of a legitimate drive to ensure that the national police force serves the people through hard work and diligence,” it added.

“He is an exemplar of that kind of attitude.

“Notwithstanding everything that happened to him, he remains an officer of exemplary character and has shown himself in giving evidence to the tribunal as being a person of admirable fortitude.”