McCabes urge politicians to resolve issue of Garda briefings

Maurice McCabe and his wife, Lorraine on Monday, called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other senior politicians to disclose if they had been briefed by the gardaí about sex abuse allegations against McCabe from August 2013.

Members of the Government could do this now, they said, and do not have to wait until any tribunal has been established. The couple noted, too, that the issue was referred in the Dáil as far back as June 19th, 2014.

Referring to articles in The Irish Independent published in May 2014, then minister for justice Alan Shatter said they " included a report of Micheál Martin meeting an individual who alleges she was the victim of a sexual assault and who alleges that her complaint was not recorded on Pulse nor did it result in a prosecution.

“I understand from the newspaper report that deputy Martin was to provide information on this matter to An Taoiseach and I presume he has done so. This case should clearly form part of any statutory inquiry.”

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Martin’s spokesperson confirms that the details of the complainant’s position given at that meeting were outlined in a letter to the Taoiseach on April 30th, 2014.

The woman’s complaint against McCabe was made in 2006, in relation to an assault alleged to have occurred some years earlier when she was a child. The complaint was investigated and no charges brought.

The woman mentioned the complaint when receiving counselling services some years later, and this, it appears, led to the Tusla agency creating a file in August 2013 in which the complaint was, mistakenly, recorded as involving a much more serious allegation – digital rape – than the complainant had actually made.

Alleged abuser

The incorrect report was then circulated to a senior garda, but its content was not brought to McCabe’s notice.

The following year the woman met Martin and, it appears, gave an interview to the Irish Independent. Neither her identity nor that of her alleged abuser were revealed in the newspaper, though many in the know knew that it was McCabe who was being referred to.

However, it would seem that all of this involved the original allegation, and not the more serious alleged offence mistakenly described in the Tusla file.

McCabe subsequently got access to the Tusla file and learned of the mistake made in 2013, and of that mistake being brought to the attention of the HSE counsellor involved in May 2014 by a “third party”.

The material given to McCabe also disclosed, he said on Monday, that an unnamed person had told the counsellor on a number of occasions around this time that the senior garda given the report containing the incorrect information, which he had not been told was incorrect, had been asked to meet with Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan. This caller must have been someone within the gardaí, said McCabe.

In January of this year the McCabes sought and had a meeting with Minister for Children Katherine Zappone to tell her of what they had discovered about the Tusla file. Since then there has been confusion as to the extent to which the Minister shared what she had learned with Kenny, prior to the Cabinet deciding last week on its terms of reference for a commission of investigation.

Those terms of reference did not refer to the Tusla matter.

However, they did refer to allegations of criminal misconduct against McCabe and the use of these in the alleged smear campaign against McCabe.

The tribunal of inquiry that will now replace that proposed commission is expected to include what happened within Tusla as part its terms of reference.

The McCabes have made clear their view that there is nothing preventing the gardaí, HSE, Tusla and others, disclosing all they know about these matters now, prior to the tribunal hearing evidence.