Maurice McCabe: A host of serious questions demand to be answered

False allegations of a most grievous nature were made against Sgt Maurice McCabe, at great distress to him and his family. Serious questions must now be answered, writes Michael Clifford.

ON WEDNESDAY, Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin told the Dáil he had been contacted by a journalist who told him that he, the journalist had direct knowledge of “calls made by the garda commissioner to journalists during 2013 and 2014 in the course of which the commissioner made very serious allegations of sexual crimes having been committed by Garda Maurice McCabe”.

The revelation threw into the public domain something that had been common currency in politics, the garda and policing for the last four years. Scurrilous rumours about Sergeant McCabe had circulated in a manner that some believed was designed to damage his credibility, and even destroy his character.