Disclosures, Discrepancies And Paul Williams

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From top; Maurice McCabe, Journalist Paul Williams, Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly, counsellor Laura Brophy

Today.

Is day 14 of the Disclosures Tribunal.

Earlier this week, it heard evidence from Ms D – the woman who made a complaint to gardaí against Sgt Maurice McCabe in December 2006 which was investigated by the DPP – and her parents Mr and Mrs D.

Readers will recall how the tribunal has already heard that Ms D’s complaint in December 2006 came 11 months after Mr D “lost his position and was reverted to other duties” after Sgt McCabe “caused the institution of serious disciplinary procedure against” Mr D in January 2006.

After the DPP investigated Ms D’s complaint, a letter from the DPP’s office was sent to the State solicitor for Cavan Rory Hayden on April 5, 2007, which stated:

Dear Sir,

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dates 1st March 2007 together with copy Grda investigation file.

I agree with you and the Guards, that the evidence does not warrant a prosecution. There was no admission. The incident as described by the injured party is vague. It appears that it was only when she was eleven/twelve that she decided that whatever occurred was sexual in nature.

Even if there wasn’t a doubt over her credibility, the incident that she describes does not constitute a sexual assault or indeed an assault.

Further, the account given to her cousin [redacted] differs in a number of respects to that given to her parents and the Guards.

There is no basis for a prosecution.

Readers will recall how Ms D’s 2006 allegation resurfaced during a counselling session seven years later in the summer 2013, in Cavan, with RIAN counsellor Laura Brophy.

An erroneous allegation of rape against Sgt McCabe ended up being attributed to Ms D when Ms Brophy sent a botched referral to Tusla in August 2013.

The tribunal is not re-examining Ms D’s allegation of 2006 but it is examining how her allegation became conflated with the allegation of rape and how, and if, this was circulated between RIAN, Tusla and An Garda Siochana.

The examination of this matter is part of a wider investigation into allegations of a smear campaign orchestrated by former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan with the knowledge of the current Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan – as alleged by the former head of the Garda Press Office Supt Dave Taylor.

Journalist Paul Williams – who wrote four articles about Ms D and her 2006 allegation in April and May 2014 – also gave evidence.

Mr Williams was the only journalist to write about Ms D and her then eight-year-old allegation before it became publicly known in February of this year that a counsellor [Laura Brophy] had made the error of adding an unrelated allegation of rape in a referral to Tusla.

Readers may wish to note that Mr Williams, Ms D, and Independent News and Media (INM) share the same solicitor for the tribunal – Kieran Kelly. Mr Williams told the tribunal that he suggested Mr Kelly to the D family in February of this year.

It’s also worth recalling that Ms D claimed the 2006 allegation would have been known in the Bailieboro, Virginia area while Mr D claimed it was an open secret in the gardaí.

Others to give evidence this week included Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly, who helped put Mr D and Paul Williams in touch with each other in 2014; Superintendent Noel Cunningham, who originally investigated the 2006 allegation; and Supt Leo McGinn, who inadvertently informed Mr D of the false rape allegation attached to Laura Brophy’s incorrect referral in 2013 when he showed Mr D the referral.

Further to this…

Readers may wish to note the following discrepancies – some minor, some not so minor – and some points of interest…

The tribunal has heard how Ms D took up counselling on July 24, 2013. She explained she went as her mother encouraged her to go before she returned to college in September 2013. This, she and Mr D claimed, was because she was hearing a lot about Sgt Maurice McCabe in the media around that time.

Specifically, Ms D said:

It would have been probably around May/June [2013] time that I would have began to hear Maurice McCabe’s name being mentioned. And yes, it did, it rattled me. It was upsetting me and I do believe my mother could see that it was affecting me. She was the one who asked me if I would attend counselling again, and very reluctantly, but to keep her happy, I had agreed.

Ms D’s father said:

I know the O’Mahony report into the penalty points issue was released in May or June of ’13, so there would have been mention of — Maurice McCabe’s name would have sort of come up in the media every so often, and I noticed, and especially her mum noticed, any time Ms. D would have heard it, it made her — she got upset, she got annoyed, and I remember her mother speaking to me and saying this and saying that she would like Ms. D to go maybe to see a counsellor to make sure she had dealt with all these issues before she went back in September, back to the southeast, back to college. “

But: Sgt Maurice McCabe was not named in the national press as a Garda whistleblower until January 2014.

Ms Brophy said Ms D had two counselling sessions – on July 24, 2013 and August 8, 2013, with the purpose of the second to obtain Sgt McCabe’s identity. Ms Brophy didn’t take any notes of the second session and merely added Sgt McCabe’s identity to a form she had filled out during the first session.

But: Ms D couldn’t really recall a second session.

Laura Brophy said when she met with Ms D on July 24, 2013, she gave Ms D a Confidentiality in Counselling form, which Ms D signed on that date. Ms Brophy told the tribunal that she would usually go through that document with her clients.

She said:

“I would generally go through that document. So, I’d kind of — I would explain it and then offer it to them to read through and then ask them to sign it and then I would sign it.”

Specifically, in regards to Ms D, Ms Brophy said:

“When the issue came up that there was a possible reporting issue I would have again spoken about my need, if identifying information came up, to report [an alleged abuser to Tusla].”

But: Ms D told the tribunal:

“I honestly don’t recall it being explained to me in depth. I do know I signed the confidentiality form, but no, I don’t recall it being discussed in depth with me.”

Laura Brophy said she referred the matter to Tusla in August 2013  (without realising she had included an unrelated rape allegation) because she believed there was no Tusla referral from 2006.

But: Ms D said she told Ms Brophy that the matter had already been investigated, that the DPP had ordered that there was to be no prosecution, and that Tusla were made aware of the matter in 2006. Ms D also said she couldn’t recall Ms Brophy telling her that Tusla did not have a referral from the matter in 2006.

Mr D spoke with Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly, who knew about the 2006 allegation, about journalist Paul Williams before Ms D met Mr Williams.

In a statement to the tribunal, Mr D said:

I met John and he asked me how Ms. D was getting on with all the publicity surrounding McCabe at the time. I told him she wasn’t getting on well and I told him that we had been approached by journalists but I was cautious of them.

John said to me would she talk to a journalist that was prominent in the media, such as Paul Williams. I said I wasn’t sure but it was Ms. D’s decision, I would talk to her. I ran it by Ms. D and she knew who Paul Williams was from the media and she said she didn’t want publicity, but just to give her story.”

But: Of the same meeting, Det Supt O’Reilly told the tribunal:

And at that time there was quite a lot of newspaper articles around Sergeant McCabe, and in the course of conversation I asked Mr. D how Ms. D was, and he described how she was not in good shape, and then he went on to outline that a number of journalists had called to their home….

He then asked me did I know Paul Williams — no, sorry, Chairman, he said that Ms. D wanted to give her account but she didn’t want to go public. And I — it was kind of — it was a bit of contradictory statement of sorts, I thought, but he said that they were talking about Paul Williams, and then he said to me, do you know him? And I said, I do. He said, what do you think of him? I said, any dealings that I had with him, I found him okay. He then asked me did I have a contact number for him. I checked the phone and obviously I did. He says, can I take it from you? And I gave him the number…

Paul Williams met Ms D on March 8, 2014 and interviewed her, part of which was recorded on video. During the interview recorded on video, they discussed GSOC.

The tribunal has heard that, in the video, Paul Williams said to Ms D:

“Would this involve GSOC or the Guards themselves or who would you like to investigate this? What body are you going to complain to?”

While giving evidence, Mr Williams was asked if he spoke to Ms D about GSOC before videoing the interview and he said: No.

But: Ms D told tribunal:

I recall speaking to Paul Williams and telling him that I was very unhappy with how the investigation of my complaint was handled in 2006. There was a couple of valid reasons I had for this belief, and having explained these reasons to Paul Williams he did suggest to me, and advised me, that if I had a complaint that I wished to follow that GSOC was an avenue I could go down, yes.

After his interview with Ms D, Paul Williams told the tribunal that he shared several phone calls back and forth with the then head of the Garda Press Office Supt Dave Taylor.

Mr Williams told the tribunal he asked Supt Taylor the following questions:

Did this investigation take place?

Who was involved?

What was the decision of the DPP?

Was there an arrest?

Can you confirm if it was Inspector Noel Cunningham who was involved?

Was the allegation placed on PULSE?

Mr Williams told the tribunal that Supt Taylor told him the matter had been investigated, it went to the DPP and there were no charges. He later added: “I was told there was insufficient evidence.”

But: John Ferry BL, for Supt Taylor, told the tribunal according to Supt Taylor, the nature of the call was that Mr Williams was informing him of what happened and that Mr Williams did not ask Supt Taylor to confirm anything specific or confirm or deny any facts. Mr Ferry said:

“It is our instructions that, to the best of our client’s recollection, there was only one phone call, which occurred on the Saturday Mr Williams attended at Ms D’s house.”

“Mr Williams telephoned our client and told him that he was at Ms D’s house and had interviewed her, that Maurice McCabe had destroyed this person and that he was going to write an article that was going to be very damaging to Maurice McCabe.

Asked if Supt Taylor didn’t say anything during the call, Mr Ferry said:

Well, that Superintendent Taylor will say that he took note of what you had told him and that he passed on to his superior, who was then-Commissioner Martin Callinan, and also Deputy Commissioner O’Sullivan, by way of text message.

Paul Williams’ articles are published in the Irish Independent in April/May 2014.

Mr Williams’ first article is published in the Irish Independent, dated April 12, 2014, headlined: “Girl wants new probe into alleged sex assault by Garda“.

In this article, Ms D was claiming that 2006 investigation was a farce, that it was brushed under the carpet; that she wanted it included in the cases being reviewed by Sean Guerin SC, on foot of a dossier of alleged garda malpractice compiled by whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson; and that she wanted a meeting with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin.

It also said that a Garda spokesman said he could not comment.

Mr Williams’ second article is published in the Irish Independent, dated April 15, 2014, headlined: “Alleged Garda sex victim wants to meet Martin.”

A line from the article stated:

“Yesterday, contact was made with Mr. Martin’s office in order to set up a meeting with him, and she is awaiting a response.”

It also stated that a Garda spokesman had refused to comment on the woman’s claims.

But: During the tribunal, Michael McDowell, for Sgt McCabe argued:

“So on 12th you’d said that she would be seeking a meeting, and on the 15th you publish another article increasing the pressure on Mr Martin, isn’t that right, by saying that yesterday contact was made with his office and that she was awaiting a response? Do you think that is normal journalistic activity?

“It was deceiving the reader into believing that you were a journalist reporting on events when in fact you were orchestrating events, isn’t that right?”

Mr Williams said he wasn’t orchestrating events.

On April 16, 2014, Mr Williams wrote a third article, headlined: “FF leader to meet woman at centre of claims she was abused by Garda

The article claimed Ms D had been on a downward spiral that resulted in two suicide attempts and, in describing her allegation, the article stated:

“He (the garda) was playing hide-and-seek with us, including his own children. He caught me hiding in the sitting room on my own. He closed the door and sexually assaulted me for what seemed like a long time before anyone else came into the room.”

But: The original allegation didn’t allege the closing of a door or that the sexual assualt went on for a long time.

Under cross examination, Mr McDowell put it to Sgt McCabe that gardai in the area would have known who this article was referring to; Supt Taylor would have known; members of the Government whom Mr Williams claimed were aware would have known; Detective Superintendent John O’Reilly would have known; Superintendent Leo McGinn would have known; and the station party in Bailieboro would have known.

Mr Williams argued that the article was “anonymised” but conceded: “Perhaps people close to it worked it out.”

On April 29, 2014, Ms D emailed the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) claiming her allegation of sexual assault was not properly investigated.

In her follow-up statement to GSOC on July 3, Ms D said:

“Paul Williams told me that my case had been known by a few people in senior ranks in the Gardaí and Government for some time.”

In relation to this comment, Mr Williams told the tribunal:

That, that comment came from the fact, I would have been talking to — when after I interviewed her [Ms D] I contacted Dave Taylor, told him what I was looking at, asked him questions. He made a throwaway remark that it was known in the Park, as in the Phoenix Park, and he suggested it was known in government. But it was — it was a passing comment, and I actually reported that back to her, I told her what he told me.

But: As mentioned previously, Supt Taylor has claimed there was only one phone call in relation to Ms D and the purpose of the call was for Mr Williams to inform Supt Taylor.

In addiiton, Ms D told GSOC two unsubstantiated rumours about Sgt McCabe, namely that Sgt McCabe would “hang around the girls’ secondary school in suspicious circumstances” – something Ms D told GSOC Dept Supt O’Reilly told her father, Mr D; and that a girl from Clones, Co Monaghan had made a similar allegation to Ms D, something which was told to her by Mr D.

Mr D confirmed the Clones rumour – which he said he heard from a retired garda who wasn’t named and that he “mentioned it in passing”.

But: A day after Ms D and Mr D gave evidence, Det Supt O’Reilly told the tribunal:

The first time I was aware of this was yesterday evening, and I was absolutely flabbergasted. I neither said it nor have any knowledge about it, on a personal or any other level. I have no reason to have ever said that, because as far as I’m concerned that is not true.”

Ms D met Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin in the Dáil on April 30, 2014 – a day after Ms D emailed GSOC and the same day Sgt McCabe’s file was “randomly” plucked from a filing cabinet in Tusla in Cavan and Laura Connolly sent a Garda notification with a false rape allegation mixed up with Ms D’s retrospective claim from 2006.

On that same day, Ms Connolly opened intake forms on four of Sgt McCabe’s children – two of whom were over the age of 18 at the time so were no longer children.

Mr Williams told the tribunal Ms D asked him to organise this meeting with Mr Martin. At different stages, he said:

“She [Ms D] asked me to make contact with Micheál Martin’s office.”

“I was asked to make the initial contact.”

“…she asked me would I set it up, and I did.”

But: Ms D told the tribunal that, while Mr Williams didn’t put her up to anything, it was Mr Williams who suggested or advised she meet Mr Martin. She said:

Paul Williams informed me that it was Micheál Martin who brought the dossier of cases that Maurice McCabe was complaining about to the attention of the Dáil, so I felt, I felt that my case was not investigated properly and I feel my case was more serious than some of the cases that were brought to the Dáil’s attention and therefore I could not understand why my case could not be included in this dossier of cases. And I was advised to meet with Micheál Martin and explain my situation with Micheál Martin and see could he perhaps get my case to be included.”

“…he said to me that it was Micheál Martin who brought Maurice McCabe’s cases to the attention of the Dáil and it would be good if you could meet with him and explain why you want your case to be included.”

“…Absolutely nobody prompted me. And I would just like to clarify that Paul did not put me up to going to speak with anyone. He suggested that it may be something that would help as I was very, very frustrated at how my case had been handled and that these were possible people that may be able to get my case to be included in the dossier of cases that were being re-examined.”

Mr Williams told the tribunal that he gave Ms D a lift from the train station to the Dail, where she met Mr Martin, and then dropped her back to the train station. He said they didn’t discuss what she would say before the interview.

But: Ms D, in her evidence, couldn’t remember Mr Williams giving her a lift.

Paul Williams’s fourth article on Ms D was published on May 3, 2014, headlined: “Kenny to set up probe into Garda sex abuse claims?”

It claimed that then Taoiseach Enda Kenny was expected to order an investigation into Ms D’s allegations.

But: Under cross examination, Mr McDowell asked Mr Williams: “Had any Taoiseach spokesman or any person told you that he was going to carry out an investigation into Ms. D’s — or an investigation into Ms. D’s allegation?”

Mr Williams replied: “Ms D was convinced from Mr Martin’s response that Enda Kenny would order an investigation into her allegations.”

On June 17, 2014, Ms D met with Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter, who had just recently stepped down from his role as Minister for Justice over the Garda controversies at the time. Readers will recall the rape error on Sgt McCabe’s file was discovered in May 2014.

Of this meeting, Paul Williams told the tribunal:

“I think in June Ms D asked me would I get in touch with Mr. Shatter. At this stage he was gone from justice, he had resigned. “

Asked why he was organising this meeting, he said:

“Because she asked me.”

But: Ms D told the tribunal:

It was Paul Williams contacted me and told me that he had been in touch with him and that he was aware of the situation and aware that I wanted my case to be included in the Guerin Report and that he wanted to speak with me about the matter.”

And in a statement to GSOC, she said:

Within the last two weeks Paul Williams contacted me and said that Alan Shatter had asked to meet me. Paul Williams told me that my case had been known by a few people in senior ranks in the Gardaí and Government for some time. I met Alan Shatter in the Merrion Hotel on Tuesday 17th June. He wanted to speak about my case and told me he was speaking before the Dáil on Thursday and wanted to mention my case to see if it could be fitted into the new investigation that had been conducted in cases in the Cavan-Monaghan area.”

Similar to when Ms D met Micheal Martin, the tribunal heard Mr Williams also met Ms D on the day she met Mr Shatter. Mr Williams said he couldn’t recall him and Ms D having a conversation about the matter.

On May 14, 2014: Ms D informs Laura Brophy of the mistake she made in regards to the rape allegation being added to her referral.

Laura Brophy tells the tribunal of notes of telephone calls that they shared after Ms D made her aware of the rape mistake

But: Ms D has no recollection of any phonecalls

Laura Brophy wrote a letter of apology to Ms D on May 16, 2014

But: Ms D told the tribunal she never got the letter and didn’t see it until the tribunal investigation.

Readers will recall how the tribunal has already heard how Mr D was shown the incorrect Tusla referral by Supt Leo McGinn in “early May”. He couldn’t recall the specific date.

This was his statement he gave the tribunal:

“Early May, my superintendent, Leo McGinn, asked me did I have a minute. I went into his office. He handed me a HSE referral form and asked ‘is that your lassie? I said ‘yeah, that is her’. I saw the detail of the allegation, digital penetration. I couldn’t believe it. I got a fierce shock. I couldn’t think straight. I felt had she told the counsellor this and not told us. Had this actually happened. She had maybe told the counsellor but had not told us. I was sick to my stomach. I couldn’t wait to get out of the office.”

I didn’t say anything to Leo McGinn as I didn’t know what was going on.”

Meanwhile…

Yesterday Supt McGinn told the tribunal that when he received a notification from Tusla, on May 7, 2014, that a woman known as ‘Ms D’ had made an allegation to counsellor Laura Brophy about Sgt McCabe, he decided that the original investigation should be reviewed by someone outside the Cavan-Monaghan division.

This botched notification – with the unrelated allegation of rape – was sent by Laura Connolly after she randomly selected it from a filing cabinet on April 30, 2014.

The tribunal heard that Supt McGinn didn’t realise that the 2013 allegation was different to the 2006 allegation and that he sent a note to Chief Supt James Sheridan on the same day he received the referral.

The Irish Times reports:

He [McGinn] said he took no directions from anyone before writing his recommendation. He told Mr McGuinness [for the tribunal] that he thought it was the day afterwards that he showed the notification to the complainant’s father, ‘Mr D’.

Readers will recall that Ms Brophy made a note of a phone call that Ms D apparently made to her on May 16, 2014.

Ms D told the tribunal:

In the documents I received I can see there was a note made by her that a call was placed I believe on 16th of May, in which I informed her that Superintendent Leo McGinn had still not been informed of the error.

And Mr D told the tribunal – in response to a question about if or when he informed Supt McGinn of the mistake:

Chairman, at the time — my feelings at the time, I was so relieved that she told me that it wasn’t her and we’d said obviously this has been a mistake. Now, I don’t remember — what I recollect was that I — I would have contacted Leo McGinn and told him that this was incorrect, this referral was incorrect…

I don’t remember [when he told McGinn], and I have seen — I have seen documentation since from Laura Brophy to say that Ms. D rang her. Now, I asked Ms. D and Ms. D says she doesn’t recall it. I don’t recall saying that to Ms. D.

The tribunal also heard that on May 22, the Chief Supt Sheridan wrote a letter to Assistant Commissioner Kieran Kenny, copied to Supt McGinn, in which he said the May 7th referral contained incorrect information and that the corrected version contained no new information and therefore did not require any further action.

Yet.

On July 16, 2016 a meeting took place in Mullingar to discuss the May referral and the Tusla error. At the meeting were Assistant Commissioner Kieran Kenny, Chief Supt Sheridan and Supt Leo McGinn, from Baileboro.

Supt Noel Cunningham – who investigated the 2006 allegation at the time and who worked in same office as Chief Supt Sheridan – was not there.

At the meeting it was decided that contact with the HSE would be made and that legal advice would be taken.

Minutes of the meeting were sent to the Garda Commissioner’s office at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park.

Today Chief Superintendent James Sheridan (retired); Inspector Pat O’Connell; Assistant Commissioner Kieran Kenny (retired); Sergeant Duffy; and Superintendent Frank Walsh will give evidence.

Related: Was whistleblower status the real reason for meeting of top brass? (Michael Clifford, Irish Examiner)

Previously: ‘That’s Not True Chairman’

‘Tearing The Garda Family Apart’

No Recollection

Another Day, Another Error

Disclosures Tribunal: At A Glance

‘There Isn’t An Error In His Favour’

Meanwhile, At Dublin Castle

DIsclosures Tribunal: Day Two

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49 thoughts on “Disclosures, Discrepancies And Paul Williams

  1. Simplelife

    Its quickly unraveling before us!! Even with the same legal team you would think they could lie together! Williams is just as bad as the scrotes he claims to report on!
    Excellent work broadsheet!

    1. Mike Oxlong

      Agreed. I feel in spite of the findings, the fallout will be minimal. As is tradition.

      1. mildred st. meadowlark

        The coverage of this has been minimal (barring broadsheet’s coverage), which is an absolute disgrace. Can’t say I’m surprised myself.

        But this is what should have people out on the streets, not bloody water charges.

        1. Sham Bob

          Actually, that deserves a less flippant, possibly more spittle-flecked response, Mildred. Apologies to my screen in advance. It might have been a throwaway comment on your part, but I’m sick of this whole ‘..this is what should have people out on the streets, not bloody water charges’ trope. It reads to me like ‘the proles only care about money’, whereas if they had middle-class sensibilities they’d be on the streets about the latest scandal of good governance.

          It ignores how the water charges movement built up, but in this case, it also ignores how the same working class communities who resisted the water charges have been well aware for a long time that Garda corruption was rampant. Garda brutality and dodgy evidence are a fact of life for many working class youth (and the people of Rossport). It’s a life and death issue, not just something to get irate about on your coffee break. Have you heard of Terence Wheelock? Plenty of protests about the dodgy investigation into his death in custody. I’m sure you would have gone if you’d known about them.

          1. Andy

            It was about the money and nothing else.
            Bunch of folks who pay for nothing were told to pay for something and that’s why they protested.
            Didn’t see these protesters out for the LPT, USC or Pension tax because very few of them were affected by it.
            Make up whatever excuse you want, but that’s the truth of it.

        2. Sheik Yahbouti

          Shabby, Mildred, truly shabby. Why aren’t you “out on the streets” about it?

          1. mildred st. meadowlark

            Jeepers, I expressed myself badly, didn’t I? This is what I get for rushing a comment out. It was a poorly thought out comment, I admit.

            I marched on the streets over water charges – I’m not trying to put down the movement at all, and what they achieved is brilliant. I just meant that this is far more outrageous and insidious and I can’t understand why people aren’t up in arms over it. This, in addition to the never-ending story of Noirin and corruption in the Gardai, is honestly disgraceful.

            @Sham, great comment, btw. Really well said, and I agree with you.

  2. Hansel

    Broadsheet: also note the inconsistency with Ms D’s evidence not alone saying that she was feeling suicidal from seeing McCabe’s name all over the media (when McCabe was still anonymous in the media) and saying that he was brought up in her lectures (he can’t have been) but also with her saying that she felt her original claim needed to be brought to GSOC “because it wasn’t investigated properly” even though she then went on to say “she didn’t want it brought up again” by Laura Brophy and was annoyed when Laura Brophy brought it up again.

    That’s not even to mention fundamental issues on the case of something – ANYTHING – happening between herself and McCabe, behind opened closed/doors, with her telling varying differing stories to different people about something which would not have constituted an incident if it had occurred.

    I wonder at what point we start talking about perjury, and what is the penalty for knowingly making false claims about someone?

    1. George

      Miss D made another similar allegation about another person which had nothing to do with Maurice Mc Cabe on a previous occasion. The real criminals are senior Garda management who were using her to discredit Maurice. They should all lose their jobs.

    2. Lou

      Fakse claims is under criminal offence act 1978 section 12 or 13. No law or offence for perjury in ireland.

        1. Lou

          Yes but if you listen to jobstown where garda committed perjury, the can not be prosecuted as we have no law to do so. Unreal, same applies to false insurance claims no law to prosecute. Only making false allegations against a person is a offence. See louie Walsh case, guy prisecuted fir fakse allegations.

  3. theo kretschmar schuldorff


    Paul Williams’s photographer on the visit to Ms D appears to have been Norin O’Sullivan’s SON, a press photographer AND a serving reserve Guard!
    Page 71, line 5 of transcript, linked below. Also a link to 2013 Indo article about same.
    Hmmmm…

    http://www.disclosuretribunal.ie/en/DIS/DAY%2011%20071817%20DISCLOSURES.pdf/Files/DAY%2011%20071817%20DISCLOSURES.pdf

    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/forces-deputy-chief-proud-as-son-joins-reserves-29834306.html

    1. kid jensen

      A handy conflict of interest to be a reserve garda and working as a court photographer. ie greater access to gardai who know what defendants look like. ask mum or dad to look up pulse for you. if you are a journalist and you are married to or your child is a garda, then you are inside the tent, I could name names.

    2. Fergus the magic postman

      As with nearly every new reveal in all of this:
      Unbelievable, unsurprising, and totally fupping shameful.

  4. Catherinecostelloe

    Unbelievable Williams never asked ms d of her ” indecent assault” when she was 6 …..nor asked her of her ” indecent assault” allegation of same event when she reported same to garda in 2006. Disgraceful behaviour Williams …….shame on you.

  5. kid jensen

    Great work bs. Nice to see Williams in the dock. I always think he chooses the bad guys and makes others out to be heroes .

  6. kid jensen

    Why did Pw have to pick ms d up from the station when she was meeting Micheal martin. if that’s not orchestration.

    1. George

      The reason Paul Williams picked up Ms D at the station is because senior Gardai / superintendents/ chief superintendents wanted to put legs under an allegation they knew to be false . This was orchestrated with the blessing of Martin Callinan and Noreen O Sullivan.

    1. George

      You are absolutely correct . All of these senior Gardai criminals must be unmasked and that includes the present commissioner and the last commissioner, because both of them were involved in the dirty tricks campaign .

  7. gepo the great

    basically whats happening is; guards did bad things. a man makes it public. guards react by trying to completely destroy his life. . . and yet varadkar can step out and say he has full confidence in NO’S? anyone saying they have confidence in her are publically saying “i’m ok with corruption”

    1. George

      It is nice to see the senior Gardai Mafia Rats been cornered. They should have their HQ in Sicily instead of the Phoenix Park. The Gambino Family are nothing compared to them.

    2. George

      If varadkar does not act and get rid of her , she will take him with her when she goes.

  8. ahjayzis

    So Denis O’Brien pays the Ireland football manager and the Garda Public Relations Manager now.

    Williams is a noxious substance.

  9. missred

    I’m betting Paul Williams loves this attention. Gets to centre himself in the whole narrative.

  10. Sham Bob

    If it ruined Paul Williams’ career at least it would have been worth it. Won’t though. Tabloid careers in Ireland are unbelievably durable here – where a radio presenter can be done for masturbating in public and get fully reinstated after a minimal period off the airwaves.

    1. kid jensen

      what’s a bit of airline auditioning the hand puppet . it didn’t come to much at the end of the day.

  11. George

    Yes Exactly. It is nice to see Senior Gardai Mafia Rats cornered. They should have their HQ in Sicily. The Gambino Family would not be even in their batting league.

  12. mo_musing

    Thank you so much Broadsheet for this public service! Great work. This is scandalous. It will be farcical if there are no repercussions.

    1. George

      Repercussions: They should all go to jail. This is criminal behaviour of the highest order.

  13. Catherinecostelloe

    In today’s Sunday business post Superintendent Cunningham re Maurice Mc Cabe ” I’ve never said a bad word about him”.
    The Superintendent said he believed Mc Cabe. had a difficulty with him and was behind a series of ” untrue” complaints about his case work , including a fatal hit and run incident, which were not upheld. Stop the clock right there. That fatal accident is subject to 57 complaints to GSOC ongoing since 2012 and findings to be published next Sept. To use words such as ” untrue” should be challenged……its FALSE actually…..see tragic death of Shane o Farrell. R. I. P.

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