Maurice McCabe allegation excluded from O’Higgins commission

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Charleton Tribunal heard that a historic sexual assault allegation involving Maurice McCabe was not added to the O’Higgins Commission’s terms of reference after garda files were reviewed. The proceedings were reported on 29 January 2018.

Michael Flahive said the Independent Review Mechanism decided against adding the case after reviewing the files. The report said the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed no charges because there was no evidence that any crime had occurred.

Flahive agreed that including the case could have put McCabe on the back foot and left him both a quasi-defendant and a witness. The tribunal was examining whether unjustified grounds had been relied upon to discredit him at the commission.