Journalist says colleague told her O’Sullivan was source of McCabe allegation

A journalist has told the Disclosures Tribunal she was told by a colleague that the former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan was the source for her belief that Sgt Maurice McCabe was a child abuser.

Alison O'Reilly, a journalist with the Irish Daily Mail, said she was told this by her colleague with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Debbie McCann.

Ms McCann has told the tribunal, by way of lawyers acting for the Mail, that she was not party to an orchestrated smear campaign against Sgt McCabe and that any discussions she had with Ms O'Reilly amounted to journalists discussing allegations they had heard about.

However, the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Peter Charleton, has said he would like Ms McCann’s counsel to put Ms McCann’s responses to the particular claims made by Ms O’Reilly to the witness before she leaves the witness box. Ms O’Reilly is to return to give further evidence on Friday.

Ms O'Reilly has separate legal representation from the publisher of the Mail, Associated Newspapers, whose legal team is also acting for Ms McCann.

The tribunal, which is investigating an alleged smear campaign against Sgt McCabe, has heard that in 2006 he was the subject of an historical allegation of child sex abuse by a woman being called Ms D, who was the daughter of a Garda colleague. The Director of Public Prosecutions dismissed the accusation.

‘Someone high up’

Ms O’Reilly told Patrick Marrinan SC, for the tribunal, that she was told by Ms McCann that she, Ms McCann, received information about an alleged assault from “someone high up”, and then confirmed that it had come from Ms O’Sullivan and Supt Dave Taylor.

Supt Taylor is a former head of the Garda Press Office who, in a protected disclosure, has claimed that he was ordered in 2013 to conduct a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.

Ms O’Sullivan has denied knowing about any smear campaign or speaking about the sex assault accusation against Sgt McCabe with any journalist.

Ms O’Reilly told the tribunal she had met with Sgt McCabe in his home, where she told him that she had been told, by Ms McCann, that he had abused a child some years earlier and there had been “a big cover-up”.

She said Sgt McCabe had told her it was not true and he had not abused any child. Ms O’Reilly said she later told Ms McCann that she had met with Sgt McCabe and didn’t believe the rumours about him. “I believed him. I had a gut feeling,” Ms O’Reilly told the tribunal.

‘Believed’

Ms O’Reilly said that she was later told by Ms McCann that Ms McCann had been to visit Ms D and had spoken with her for an hour and that she “really believed her”. The witness outlined some of the detail of the alleged assault which she said she had heard from Ms McCann.

Mr Marrinan said Ms D’s mother has told the tribunal that Ms McCann called to her door and requested an interview with her daughter, that she refused, and that the conversation only lasted a short time.

Ms O’Reilly said that either Ms McCann “wasn’t telling the truth then or isn’t now. I can only tell you what she told me.”

Hugh Mohan SC, for Associated Newspapers, said the witness was currently taking three legal cases against her employer, two in the High Court and one in the Labour Court. Ms O'Reilly said the cases were not relevant to the evidence she was giving to the tribunal.

The tribunal heard that in February 2017 Ms O’Reilly told Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin what she claims she was told by Ms McCann, and that the politician later that morning raised the matter in the Dáil. This led to a major political and media controversy which put pressure on the then Garda commissioner.