Tag Archives: Trevor Collins

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Solicitor Trevor Collins and Prime Time’s Miriam O’Callaghan

Last night.

On RTÉ’s Prime Time.

Garda whistleblower Keith Harrison’s solicitor Trevor Collins spoke to Miriam O’Callaghan about how Keith was also the subject of a referral to Tusla over a false abuse allegation.

From the interview…

Miriam O’Callaghan: “Garda [Keith] Harrison. Now, he too, I just want to read this to get it right. He was the subject of a referral to Tusla over abuse allegations that were later found to be untrue.”

Trevor Collins: “That is correct. It was a very, very disturbing and worrisome development for Keith Harrison and his partner, Marisa. As you can imagine the fact that someone is referred to Tusla – no matter what stage or what capacity in life, or office they hold – it is, by any measure, a disturbing, and something that would devastate a family and it had that effect on Keith and Marisa where they were, without any notice, invited to meet with Tusla, at a formal meeting, in the Tusla offices. And that came to them out of the blue.”

“It was, they were told during that meeting that they had no issue and no case to answer. That caused untold stress, upset, anguish. She worries, as a mother that someone is watching them.”

O’Callaghan: “I would assume Tusla would say they only went along and investigated and spoke to everybody because this complaint or allegation had been made.”

Collins: “That is fair and, to be fair, Keith and Marisa would be the first to say that the social workers from Tusla who visited their home, who then met with, were more than accommodating, understanding. The individuals who visited and conducted this investigation themselves, appeared to suggest to Keith – and this is in Keith and Marisa’s view – that they could see no reason why they were doing what they had to do but they were being told and that they had to carry out this duty.

O’Callaghan: “Now, in the end, they were found to be completely untrue, these allegations, isn’t that correct?”

Collins: “Absolutely, untrue. And there was no justification for this and no case to answer by anyone.”

O’Callaghan: “Now, Keith Harrison did try to make contact with the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, didn’t he?”

Collins:Keith Harrison has been writing continuously since June 2014, to the minister, about the issues he has suffered. He has brought, to her attention, the efforts – as he sees it – by senior management of An Garda Siochana to smear him, to destroy his credibility, to undermine the very foundation that makes him a partner, the things that make a person, outside of their employment…I suppose, really, what I’m trying to explain to you, is, look, their fundamental being was being attacked.”

Watch back in full here

Previously: “The Similarities Cannot Be Ignored”

‘Why Are Nine Garda Whistleblowers Out Sick?’

Related: Second Garda whistleblower referred to Tusla (Michael Clifford, Irish Examiner)