Garda lawyer led to think Maurice McCabe mistake accurate

The lead counsel in the Garda legal strategy challenging the credibility and motivation of Sgt Maurice McCabe at the O’Higgins inquiry in 2015 said he had been “left in no doubt” that information given to his legal team by senior gardaí grounding that strategy was accurate, when a key part of it was “wrong”.

Colm Smyth SC said no one ever pointed out to him that he had been given mistaken information, which was included in a legal document to the inquiry on May 18, 2015 and used by him in cross-examining Sgt McCabe, and repeated in a submission a month after.

Mr Smyth told the Disclosure Tribunal yesterday that he only discovered the mistake when it was revealed at the inquiry on June 24 and said it became “blatantly obvious” that a significant error had been made.