McCabe claim of harassment to be probed

The Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe has been told by interim Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan that his allegations of harassment will be independently investigated by an officer of his choice.

In a 15-minute telephone conversation, Ms O’Sullivan told the Garda sergeant that she would not tolerate any harassment of an officer who has come forward with complaints.

The conversation was the first contact made by any senior management in the force with Sgt McCabe since the publication of the Guerin report, which vindicated his complaints of malpractice in An Garda Síochána.

Since that telephone conversation, Sgt McCabe has been contacted by an assistant commissioner and senior officers from his own Mullingar station, offering their support.

All have told Sgt McCabe that they will not tolerate any other incidents of harassment against him.

Sources close to Sgt McCabe have said he is happy with the intervention from the interim Garda commissioner.

Ms O’Sullivan’s telephone call came hours after she was asked by Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, to personally involve herself in stopping the harassment of Sgt McCabe.

At the Oireachtas Justice Committee on Wednesday, Mr Mac Lochlainn told the interim commissioner that he had spoken to Sgt McCabe that morning and was deeply alarmed about a number of incidents of alleged harassment against the officer — all motivated on the basis that he had spoken out about Garda malpractice.

At that committee hearing, Ms O’Sullivan told Mr Mac Lochlainn that senior management were in contact with Sgt McCabe on “a daily basis” about these issues, but the sergeant claimed that nobody in senior management had contacted him.

He phoned the Garda commissioner’s office to relay his concern over her comments, and she responded by returning his call an hour later.

Sgt McCabe had been on sick leave since Monday as a result of stress associated with a number of incidents of harassment.

In their telephone conversation, Ms O’Sullivan told him that her priority was to get him back to work and to ensure that he would not be subjected to any further incidents.