The atmosphere in Bailieboro Garda Station was “hugely divisive” in the wake of whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe going outside the force to make complaints, the Charleton Tribunal has heard.
Insp Patrick O’Connell, who was a sergeant in the Cavan-Monaghan division between 2007 and 2014, was answering questions from the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Peter Charleton.
“By 2014 nobody knew where it was going to end,” the witness told the chairman. Sgt McCabe had gone outside the organisation and was “making everyone look bad,” the chairman said.
The witness agreed and said he presumed Sgt McCabe felt he had no option as he had tried other avenues and they had failed.
He was asked what he thought of Sgt McCabe’s allegation of corruption against the former Garda commissioner, Martin Callinan. “I don’t believe there was an element of corruption,” the witness said.
The judge said the allegation was “clearly wrong” and “to say it was thin would be putting it mildly”, but it had put the Garda under the spotlight and not in a good way.
Insp O’Connell said there was huge negativity in the media but a lot of good work was going on behind the scenes. His own view was that Sgt McCabe felt he had to bring matters “down that route”.
The tribunal heard that at the time there were problems with the number of probationary gardaí working out of Bailieboro, as well as accommodation shortcomings at the station.
Asked if people had a problem with the fact that a man was rocking the boat so that it was taking water, Insp O’Connell said a lot of people did have a problem with what the sergeant was doing and there was a divide in the station.
The difficulties at the station went back to 2007 when there had been an investigation of a child sex allegation against Sgt McCabe by the daughter of a station colleague. No charges were brought.
Asked why he did not give a colleague a “heads up” in 2014, when he became aware that a clerical error had led to Sgt McCabe being the subject of an erroneous allegation of child rape, Insp O’Connell said he might have been disciplined if he revealed confidential information.
However there was also a fear at the time about getting embroiled in the whistleblower controversy. “That was a genuinely-held fear at the time,” he said.
The McCabe controversy had gone to commissioner level, and people felt that if they contacted Sgt McCabe “you could end up embroiled in something you had nothing to do with.”
The witness told Diarmuid McGuinness SC, for the tribunal, that he didn’t believe the child rape allegation against Sgt McCabe was true when he saw it in 2014.
The witness was the divisional clerk in the Cavan-Monaghan division when a report was received on May 14th containing the allegation, from the child and family agency, Tusla, and he discussed it with Chief Supt James Sheridan.
The tribunal has heard that at the time Sgt McCabe was at “the very centre of a national political storm”.
Insp O’Connell said from his dealings with Sgt McCabe, he “certainly didn’t believe that he would have carried out such an act.” He said he had been aware there had been an allegation made against Sgt McCabe in 2006 but it was certainly not an allegation of rape.
Such an allegation against any member would have been known about, he said.
The tribunal has heard that a child abuse allegation from a woman known as Ms D was investigated in 2006/2007 and no charges brought.
When the woman was later attending counsellor Laura Brophy, an administrative error led to the erroneous allegation of digital rape being recorded, and the false allegation was notified to the Garda.
When a notification was received in the divisional office in May 2014 the matter was discussed by the witness and the chief superintendent.
“I got the sense from the chief superintendent that it was wrong, that it was a mistake,” Insp O’Connell said.
He was asked by Michael McDowell SC, for Sgt McCabe, about a “wierd” letter that the chief superintendent sent to assistant commissioner Kieran Kenny notifying him of the receipt of the rape notification, but not warning him that it might be an error.
The witness said that when confirmation was received, in writing, that the rape allegation was an error, this was immediately passed on to the assistant commissioner. This happened on May 22nd.
The tribunal continues.
