Tribunal hears more serious allegations were mistakenly included in Maurice McCabe report

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

The Disclosures Tribunal heard evidence about child sexual abuse allegations involving Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. The proceedings were reported on 4 July 2017.

The tribunal, chaired by Mr Justice Peter Charleton, was examining whether State agency files were used by senior gardaí to invent or further a false allegation against McCabe.

Social worker Rhona Murphy said a garda colleague of McCabe had named him as the alleged abuser of his daughter, identified as Ms D. The allegations against McCabe were made in a statement to gardaí in December 2006.

The report said McCabe was not interviewed by social workers about the allegation, despite an April 2007 meeting recording that he should be offered a risk assessment. Murphy said the case was formally closed in October 2007 because the DPP had decided against a prosecution, Ms D had disengaged from the service and the child sexual abuse team had completed its assessment.

Psychologist Laura Brophy told the tribunal she could not explain how more serious allegations from an unrelated case were included in her report on Ms D. She acknowledged it was a mistake. Brophy said Ms D contacted her about the error on 14 May 2014 and that she immediately apologised. She believed she had corrected the error that month after contacting the HSE and garda authorities.

Charleton said the allegation “literally came out of the blue” when it was put to McCabe almost a decade later. The tribunal’s examination was still under way.