Candidates clash over alleged malicious text messages

Two election candidates in Cork East have clashed over alleged malicious text messages, with one councillor claiming a Social Democrats (SD) contender implied he had been the source of the sinister communications.

Thu, 18 Feb, 2016 - 00:00

Joe Leogue

Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy issued a statement denying any involvement in the threatening messages sent to candidate Ken Curtin (SD).

Mr McCarthy said he first became aware of the texts on January 27, when Mr Curtin sent a text message to his campaign manager. Mr Curtin, he said, had accused his campaign of being behind the messages.

“Our immediate response was to ask for a copy of the text and phone number so we could ascertain if, or not, it came from a member of our team. We promised, if it was established it was a member of our team, we would immediately expose and expel that person. Mr Curtin declined the offer,” said Mr McCarthy.

The ex-Sinn Féin member said he submitted messages between his campaign manager and Mr Curtin to the gardaí, along with the individual phone numbers of his campaign team. He said gardaí contacted his campaign manager on February 1 to inform him his team was cleared of involvement. The garda response was relayed by the campaign manager to Mr Curtin on February 3.

However, Mr McCarthy believes Mr Curtin inferred he was responsible for the texts in a series of radio interviews last Monday.

“We hope for the sake of justice that the perpetrator will be found. We also hope that Mr Curtin will have the decency and political maturity to state publicly that he got it wrong with his malicious allegations,” said Mr McCarthy.

In response, Mr Curtin denied he singled out any constituency rival for accusation. “At no stage have I named publicly who I believe to be behind these texts, as I do not want to prejudice any potential legal case, as the matter is still part of an ongoing garda investigation,” he said. “I find it bizarre that one candidate is now asking me to cease doing something I haven’t done in the first place.”