Tag Archives: John Wilson

WilsonTV3
[Former Garda John Wilson on TV3’s Tonight With Vincent Browne last night]

“I just want to say, in relation to Sgt [Maurice] McCabe that I believe that Commissioner [Martin] Callinan should be proud to have a member of the calibre of Maurice McCabe as a member of our police service and I am demanding now, in the public interest, on behalf of the Irish people, that Commissioner Callinan restores Sgt McCabe’s full access to the Garda PULSE system with immediate effect. And I am making that demand in the public interest.”

Former garda John Wilson on the Tonight with Vincent Browne Show last night.

Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe has been banned from using PULSE since mid-December 2012.

Watch back in full here

Previously: The Thin Blue Timeline

Mukulla

PTMaurice

On Prime Time last night RTÉ’s David McCullagh held a debate with Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins in light of Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s announcement yesterday that he has appointed Sean Guerin, SC, to look into Sgt Maurice McCabe’s dossier which alleges Garda mishandling of a number of serious crimes.

They also discussed the so-called directive that Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan sent to former Garda John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe separately on December 14, 2012. The ‘directive’ was delivered verbally to the two gardaí. Mr Wilson said last night that the superintendent that gave him the message told Mr Wilson that he was under instructions from Commissioner Callinan not to furnish Mr Wilson with a written copy of the directive.

Commissioner Callinan maintains this directive called on both men to co-operate with the penalty points inquiry, led by Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahoney.

But Sgt McCabe released a statement on Monday night saying the Commissioner’s claims were ‘gravely misleading and false’ while last night Mr Wilson said he believed the directive was the equivalent of a ‘gagging order’.

Sgt McCabe taped the conversation during which his directive was delivered, while in the case of Mr Wilson, he took notes. Mr Wilson’s notes – in so far as the message that was read out to him – match what was read out to Sgt McCabe, in Sgt McCabe’s transcript.

The directive was issued just a few days after Mr Wilson was found printing off records from the PULSE system in Cavan and days after several high-profile people were named in the Dáil as having had penalty points quashed.

On this specific matter, RTE’s David McCullagh took issue with Charlie Flanagan.

David McCullagh: “I want to ask you a question. Gerry Adams made the point in the Dáil during those exchanges that the Taoiseach was given that dossier less than a week ago and now we have an independent barrister appointed to look into it to see if there’s anything to investigate there, as you say, the Taoiseach has moved fast. Alan Shatter was given this two years ago.”

Charlie Flanagan: “There are two charges levelled on a continuous basis by Niall Collins and Fianna Fáil against Alan Shatter and they are as follows. Firstly, that he was given documentation two years ago, which he sat on. Not true. We will see tomorrow and we’ve already evidence that Alan Shatter acted on documentation that was before him: some of these issues and allegations have already been the subject of an examination by the GSOC office. In fact, in fact…”

McCullagh: “Then why has Mr Guerin been appointed?”

Flanagan: “In fact, David, in some cases, in some cases, charges have been brought, due process has taken place in the courts, and people have been convicted, that’s exactly as it should be through the criminal law. The second charge against Alan Shatter is that in some way he misled the Dáil by saying that Sgt McCabe, a central figure, did not cooperate with the investigation. I say, having read the documentation now published and having regard to what Sgt McCabe, an honourable man, said last night, I believe there are failures on both sides. I find it inexplicable that an investigation could take place at the behest of the gardaí, under Assistant Commissioner O’Mahoney without Sgt McCabe, a central figure being involved. How is it? How is it the investigation took place?..”

McCullagh: “Well that’s a very good question.”

Talk over each other

McCullagh: “How is it that Alan Shatter didn’t seem in the least bit concerned about it?”

Flanagan: “No, I believe that this, that this issue is, has been the subject of a review of papers in Alan Shatter’s office over the last and I believe we’ll know this tomorrow. The second issue is, as far as Sgt McCabe is concerned, there are reports that he was asked on more than one occasion…”

McCullagh: “What reports?”

Flanagan: “..that his issues would be…letters from the Department of Justice directly to him and the content of the transcript of the tape last night.”

McCullagh: “Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.”

Flanagan: “It seems to me inexplicable that Sgt McCabe didn’t know that there was an investigation under way.”

McCullagh: “Hold on. The thing last night is quite clear. What he was told: ‘The Commissioner is now directing you to stop accessing PULSE and he disputes whether he was doing that and, anyway..’And if you have any concerns they can be brought to the attention of the Assistant Commissioner’. How is that a direction?”

Flanagan: “Yes, well, I find it inexplicable that Sgt McCabe wasn’t aware of the fact that an investigation was taking place.”

McCullagh: “But the Commissioner and the Minister said that he was directed to cooperate with the inquiry, now is that a direction?”

Flanagan: “Well, I believe that there is more to the story than we’ve seen and I look forward to the minister making that statement tomorrow in the Dáil.”

McCullagh: “The Commissioner said that on that date…”

Flanagan: “And standing over what the minister has said, under Dáil privilege.”

McCullagh: “The Commissioner said that on that date that Sgt McCabe was directed to cooperate with the inquiry and quite clearly if that, if that transcription is correct, he quite clearly wasn’t.”

Flanagan: “Listen the fact of the matter here is that Sgt McCabe knew that an investigation of some form was taking place because he was given more information than was actually contained in the transcript.”

McCullagh: “And did he have the Assistant Commissioner’s phone number in his, in his iPhone.”

Flanagan: “Listen, I’m not in a position to answer as to whether Sgt McCabe had people’s phone numbers on his person. What I am saying, David, and you know this is a complex and serious issue, what I’m saying is there were failures on both sides. How an investigation could take place over a period of months, the central figure wasn’t involved and happened to ring up wondering what the story was when the whole thing was finished.”

McCullagh: “What was Minister Shatter’s failure then? Well, Niall Collins is the one who..”

Niall Collins: “No you just said there’s failures on both sides, Charlie, I mean you’re being entirely inconsistent here.”

Talk over each other.

Collins: “Is it good enough that the Minister for Justice will come in to Dáil Éireann under privilege and seek to completely discredit the character of Maurice McCabe.”

Flanagan: “No I don’t accept that will happen.”

Collins: “You have testified on numerous occasions that Maurice McCabe is very credible so has Pat Rabbitte, so has members of the PAC [Public Accounts Committee]. Anybody that has met Maurice McCabe is happy that he is credible in terms of what he is saying. Yet the minister choose to come into the Dáil and seek to assassinate his character.”

Talk over each other.

McCullagh: “Let Charlie answer that.”

Flanagan: “I think that is the kind of hyperbole that is actually damaging to the process.”

McCullagh: “Well hold on a second.”

Talk over each other.

Flanagan: “What Minister Shatter said under Dáil privilege was that it was his view that Sgt McCabe did not cooperate with the investigation.”

McCullagh: “But how could he cooperate when he wasn’t asked?”

Flanagan: “Well, you know, that’s a moot question and it’s not perfectly clear that he wasn’t asked. And I looked at the evidence of the Garda Commissioner and the evidence of the Department of Justice as far as that’s concerned.”

McCullagh: “Ok, well just in relation to the revelation last night, you know, you, some people say that’s a direction – I don’t see how anybody who understands the use of the English language could think that was a direction but anyway that’s beside the point. Why was it delivered verbally and not in written form? Why, if he did disobey a direction, was he not disciplined for it, and why on earth did the Assistant Commissioner not pick up the phone and ring him?

Flanagan: “These are questions that are better put to the Garda Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner. I would have thought that the Assistant Commissioner might have made a call to him over the course of weeks before the investigation got under way and in fact when the investigation was under way, having regard for the fact that Sgt McCabe was at all times a central figure.”

Watch back in full here.

Transcript of conversation between Maurice McCabe and Mark Curran (Irish Examiner)

Related: GSOC Saga: Uncovering truth amidst confusion (Mick Clifford, Irish Examiner)

90331064903310659033106790331116

Protestors including Garda Whistleblower John Wilson (top) with Joan Collins TD and Shell to Sea campaigners outside Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin this afternoon calling for the resignation of Justice Minister Alan Shatter, who is appearing before the Public Service Oversight committee over the GSOC and whistleblower crisis.

Update:

shatt

Alan Shatter before de committe NOW. Watch here.

Update:

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

Garda

Journalist Michael Clifford spoke to Pat Kenny on Newstalk this morning following his articles in today’s Irish Examiner about the anonymous penalty points garda whistleblower.

It has emerged that the sergeant – whom Mr Clifford describes as WB – was subjected to disciplinary action in relation to a computer suspected of containing child pornography images which was seized from a paedophile priest Michael Molloy in Kill, Co. Cavan but subsequently went missing from Bailieborough Garda Station.

This happened after he attempted to highlight what he believed was malpractice within the gardaí.

WB had nothing to do with the initial investigation and was the only officer subjected to disciplinary action in relation to the loss of the computer.

From the Pat Kenny Show:

Pat Kenny: “Listening to all of this, it leaves me with the impression, reading what you wrote this morning, and in this conversation with you, it’s kind of: ‘that’ll teach to whistleblow’.”

Michael Clifford: “You could easily..”

Kenny: “I mean that’s the conclusion that I’m left with, I may be wrong.”

Clifford: “Yeah.”

Kenny: “That’s the conclusion: that you actually stick by your colleagues, you don’t rock the boat, you don’t create scandals, you don’t damage the force and, if you do, you know, you pay a price.”

Clifford: “I’ll put it to you this way, to you Pat. In today’s piece, I quoted legal opinion that was obtained by sources, associated with the whistleblower and the legal opinion of having reviewed the case, suggested that it seems, the whole thing was connected with this man whistleblowing and it was described as shambolic.”

Meanwhile, ‘WB’ will go before the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday to discuss the amount of money he and fellow whistleblower, and former garda, John Wilson believe the State has lost as a result of the quashing of penalty points.

Last year a box of evidence was sent to PAC which apparently contains thousands of examples of multiple terminations for individuals.

Last Saturday, the Irish Independent reported that the Garda Commissioner, who will also go before PAC on Thursday, intends to refuse to answer any questions about the box of evidence.

John Wilson, Michael Clifford and John Devitt will be on TV3’s Tonight With Vincent Browne at 11.05pm tonight.

The mysterious case of the missing child-porn computer seized by Gardaí (Irish Examiner)

Gardaí took action against us because we spoke out, say whistleblowers (Irish Examiner)

Thorn in the side of the Force (Irish Exmainer)

Previously: John Wilson on Broadsheet.ie

wilson

[Former garda John Wilson]

“We started to discover clusters,” he says. “Myself and the other man. We started seeing the same names coming up again and again on the Pulse [Garda computer] system and we realised that certain people were being looked after; that people with connections in Irish society, from judges to politicians to celebrities, were having their points quashed and that this was happening in every town in the country.”
Wilson, along with his colleague, brought a sample of their findings to an individual within the force called the Confidential Recipient, who was responsible for dealing with internal complaints.
“…But when nothing happened we decided to bring the information to an Independent TD, Clare Daly and to use that old vernacular expression – that’s when the shit really hit the fan.”

Garda whistleblower John Wilson speaking with Robert Mulhern of The Irish Post this week.

Mr Mulhern has made  a radio documentary about Mr Wilson, called The Garda Who Limped. It will be broadcast tomorrow [Saturday] on RTÉ Radio 1 at 2pm.

It can also be listened to here.

Is Garda whistleblower simply ‘a rat’ or Ireland’s answer to Edward Snowden? (Irish Post)

Previously: Keeping A Lid On The Box Of Evidence

Early Profiling

Penalty Points Weirdness

Meanwhile At INM

The Penalty Points Whistleblower

Thanks Robert Mulhern

 

wilson

Garda whistleblower John Wilson, above, spoke to Pat Kenny this morning about the imminent garda report into the quashing of penalty points.

Pat Kenny: “The reason that Clare Daly and Co mentioned all of this in the Dáil chamber was because they got the information from whistleblowers. I’m joined by one of the whistleblowers, John Wilson, who had more than 30 years service in the Gardaí before, he says, he was forced to retire, recently. John, good morning.”

John Wilson: “Good morning, Pat.”

Kenny: “Now, we don’t know the detail of this report. Mick Wallace described it earlier as a ‘whitewash’. But we’ve been promised it will be transparent. What is your reaction to, if you like, the last chapter in your particular personal saga.”

Wilson: “Well, Pat. I initially made a complaint last, through the Garda Confidential Recipient back last March, that’s the Garda whistleblower, Mr Oliver Connolly. And, Mr Connolly handed that complaint to the Garda Commissioner. He informed the Ombudsman on the fourth of April of last year. And my initial allegations, that refered to a small number of, of tickets, fixed charge penalty notices that had been terminated by senior Garda officers. And I was concerned about the manner in which those tickets had been terminated. And I awaited with interest for a response from the Garda Commissioner and weeks turned into months and I got no feedback, I got no response. So, I then contacted Clare Daly, a member of the Oireachtas, to voice my concerns to her. And I outlined, I outlined a large number, I outlined information, a large number of fixed charges, penalty notices that had been, in my opinion, been corruptly terminated by senior Gardaí.”

Kenny: “Now, when you say corruptly terminated. You don’t, well we think is in the report that where there’s no paper trail, where there’s no rationale offered for the quashing of penalty points, that the senior Gardaí involved, and superintendents and inspectors may face disciplinary procedures but if there is a paper trail, if there is a rationale, you know ‘my wife is pregnant, so I’m speeding on my way to the maternity hospital, bla, bla, bla’, where there is a paper trail. You have to say the Gardaí, I may not agree with his or her discretion, but they have that power and it was legally used.”

Wilson: “Pat, in relation to the discretion, you know, the matter of discretion. I heard Mr Sherry this morning talking about discretion and he gave a couple of examples there, in relation to the people with no tax and whatever. You know, I mean, I mean, as I’ve said, I totally agree, and I would always agree. And I mean it’s a good thing in a democracy that there are police force has a modicum of discretion. Now, you see, if I stopped Pat Kenny on a motorway, doing 150 kilometres an hour. And I decide, I say ‘Pat, for god’s sake, you know, will…”

Kenny: “Slow down.”

Wilson: “Will you go a bit easier, Pat, you know, and I’d let you go, right. That’s discretion, Pat. That’s a guard. That’s a Garda Wilson using their discretion.”

Kenny: “Yeah.”

Wilson: “But if I decide that Pat Kenny’s speed warrants the issue of a fixed charge penalty notice, once I, once a guard issues that notice, the only person that can challenge, can challenge the guard’s authority is a member of the judiciary, a judge. So, I mean, what has happened in many cases, that I reported, you had guards doing their job, they were detecting people speeding, using mobile phones or whatever, they lawfully issued fixed charge penalty notices. And the person on the seat of the fixed charge penalty notice was..con..contacted senior Gardaí, behind the back of the original, of the guard and the tickets were subsequently terminated. Right? That, in effect, was undermining the authority of the guards, who were carrying out their duty as such and trying to save people’s lives…”

Kenny: “Yeah. The problem is and I have in front of me the legally possible basis for cancelling penalty points. This is an extract from the Minister for Justice’s speech to the Dáil in September and he says: “Following the introduction of fixed charges, An Garda Síochána established a policy and procedures on the termination/cancellation of fixed charge notices, set out in the fixed charge processing system, full user manual policies procedures, third edition, 2005. In essence, the policy and procedures provides authority to District Officers/Inspector Acting District Officer and the Inspector Fixed Charge Processing Office to cancel fixed charge notices with a policy and procedure framed around legislative exceptions contained in road traffic legislation and regulations, in conjunction with the specific guidelines, issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions.” So, let me just ask you this because it would appear from this that there would be no point in going to the ordinary guard on the motorcycle, in the Traffic Corps, who gives you these points because he doesn’t have the power to terminate them or cancel them, it’s the District Officer or Inspector Acting, so, you know, there would be no point in going to the ordinary guard, that’s why they go above his, or her, head.”

Wilson: “First of all, first of all, Pat, it needs to be clarified that, the fact that a Garda policy is issued, it doesn’t necessarily make it legal. It’s not a legal document. I mean unless it’s a statutory instrument backing it up and, in my opinion, in my opinion, what’s been happening is totally unlawful. The situation is Pat that, I mean, if you were, if you were hurrying to, hurrying into hospital with your wife or whatever, something, I mean for god’s sake Pat, I mean, you know, I mean if that’s a genuine case, you know what I mean, it’d be kind of, you know, if somebody has a ticket, has a ticket cancelled it in those circumstances, fine. But Pat. What’s been happening, and what has happened over the last number of years is the fact that if you have connections with a guard right?”

Kenny: “Yeah.”

Wilson: “I could tell you, Pat that every town in this country right? There are people who have benefited from knowing senior Gardaí right? Basically speaking they’ve got away with everything. The Chris Huhne case in England and it’s been highlighted, it’s been highlighted recently and both himself and his wife got a term of imprisonment for perverting the course of justice, right? Pat, the Chris Huhne case would never happen in this country. Chris Huhne, if he’d been a public representative, would have contacted a garda officer and the matter would have been looked after. You know what I mean? We’re talking about whole scale, a whole scale termination. You know. I mean if you go an ask the ordinary person, Pat who’ve had, who have had penalty points issued to them. Those people have no facility of having a ticket terminated. I can tell you Pat, now and I know you’re in…of time, over the last 30 years, at any time, and I’m going to use this just, I’m going to use the figure of 100 as a, as just an example. I could have prosecuted let’s say 100 people for various offences, for speeding, for kind of talking on mobile phones while driving.”

Kenny: “Yeah.”

Wilson: “98 of those people, Pat, might have had connections and I might have got phonecalls in relation to them. I could have gone into the witness box in any district court in this country, I could have, I could have struck out 98 of those summonses, Pat. I could have proceeded against the two people who have no connections. I could have stepped out and those people would have been convicted and got their penalty points, and got their fines. I could have then stepped out of the witness box, Pat, and neither the judge nor any senior garda officer, or anybody else would question me in relation to why I struck out 98 summonses, right? Now I could tell you Pat that this is a scandal. You cannot have guards investigating guards, Pat. It doesn’t make sense. Now, and as I said, I mean I’m calling for an independent investigation into the allegations that I have made and into the allegations that my colleague has made. It doesn’t have to take six months or a year, and I know in this country, Pat, when people mention and independent inquiry.”

Kenny: “Indeed.”

Wilson: “..that they start panicking over the cost or whatever. But a senior, I mean a High Court judge right, to examine and to carry out a proper independent inquiry into the allegations that I’ve made and into the allegations my colleague has made.”

Kenny: “Right. Well there’ll be a lot more about this, John, later on in the day, when the report is actually published and whether that will change your mind or not, I don’t know. I suspect it won’t. But John, thank you very much for joining us on the line this morning.”

Listen here

Pic: Irish Independent

UPDATE: