Disclosures Tribunal

DrumSteve

So it looks like Callinan and Taylor were in it together, (un)believable stuff. And apparently O'Sullivan is innocent in this whole sage too...

Here

Main findings as per the link:

The Disclosures Tribunal is “convinced” there was a “campaign of calumny” by former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan against Maurice McCabe.
It found that this was “actively aided” by former garda press officer Superintendent Dave Taylor, but that he didn’t do it “under orders”.
Callinan and Taylor were “in it together”, the Tribunal found.
Maurice McCabe was “repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer”.
There is “no credible evidence” that Nn O’Sullivan played any hand act or part in any campaign conducted by Commissioner Martin Callinan and by Superintendent David Taylor against Maurice McCabe.
Mistakes made at the O’Higgins Commission into earlier claims by McCabe “had nothing to do with Nn O’Sullivan.
An Garda Sh needs a “complete turn-around in their attitude” which must be led by senior management.

So will we see any changes in the Garda due to this? My gut feeling tells me no, not a hope.

Your Face

DrumSteve wrote: »

So will we see any changes in the Garda due to this? My gut feeling tells me no, not a hope.

So, no change then.

Laois_Man

He's a ****ing scumbag of the higest order and should be prosecuted the corrupt bastard!!

Today's report doesn't even touch on the fact that he had members of GSOC intimidated, the Kieran Boylan saga, and the fact that he had Gemma O'Doherty effectively sacked for writing an article about penalty points being erased.

But he wont face any consequences whatsoever!

McMurphy

There is “no credible evidence” that Nn O’Sullivan played any hand act or part in any campaign conducted by Commissioner Martin Callinan and by Superintendent David Taylor against Maurice McCabe.

Wonder if the phones had any credible evidence on them, and was any credible reason ever given for them going AWOL?

hatrickpatrick

The language used to describe Taylor is quite unbelievable for a government report. Usually they're very civilised in how they go about criticising people, but in this case the judge bluntly states Taylor to have been incompetent:

The judge wrote: “It is an utter mystery as to why Commissioner Martin Callinan could have decided to choose Superintendent David Taylor as his press officer. Both of them have given explanations for this decision: that David Taylor was talented, experienced, articulate and so on. He is not. All of this is just plain untrue.”

Jameswhalley

Jumped up twerp with a badge and uniform

hatrickpatrick

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

Wonder if the phones had any credible evidence on them, and was any credible reason ever given for them going AWOL?

One thing which worries me about the tribunal's approach to phones (and I've heard it directly from people involved with investigating alleged crimes that this is a problem for all areas of enforcement involving mobile phones these days) is their reliance on phone billing records in lieu of the missing devices. iMessages, WhatsApp calls and messages, Viber calls and messages, Facebook messages, Skype calls and messages, and Facetime calls and messages are all transmitted over the internet, and as such simply do not appear in any way on phone billing records from the period in which they are made. The only "evidence" of their existence would be in data usage records and it's impossible to pin down what exactly such data usage was for - if my phone record says that I spend 150MB of data on a given day, it's impossible for it to know which apps I was using, and this is even more obscured if one is using Wifi.

So the fact that no messages were found in billing records proves absolutely nothing. I'm sure that senior law enforcement officers would be well aware of this situation, given the headaches it causes in criminal investigations, and as such would have known to use one of the aforementioned undetectable means of communication instead. And several of them - WhatsApp and iMessages, for example - are encrypted in such a way that even the owners of the service are technically incapable of decrypting them without permission from the end user.

This was all set up purposefully because of the US government overreach exposed by Edward Snowden. Tech companies are not to blame for the lack of law enforcement access to these messages and records - rather, American law enforcement agencies acting far beyond their remit and blatantly violating human rights in secret, explicitly caused the tech companies to massively tighten up their security in such a way that if they were ordered to assist in an investigation, they could honestly answer "well we'd love to, but it's impossible. The software doesn't allow it".

One wonders how much evidence this Tribunal was robbed of because of this paradigm.

hatrickpatrick

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

The language used to describe Taylor is quite unbelievable for a government report. Usually they're very civilised in how they go about criticising people, but in this case the judge bluntly states Taylor to have been incompetent:

The judge wrote: “It is an utter mystery as to why Commissioner Martin Callinan could have decided to choose Superintendent David Taylor as his press officer. Both of them have given explanations for this decision: that David Taylor was talented, experienced, articulate and so on. He is not. All of this is just plain untrue.”

Taylor was no more than a stooge to do Callinan's bidding. Their conduct was disgraceful, McCabe had his dignity shredded.

DrumSteve

Deleted User wrote: »

Taylor was no more than a stooge to do Callinan's bidding. Their conduct was disgraceful, McCabe had his dignity shredded.

Its a disgrace all round, but there is no consequences to this for them.

orourkeda1977

Ireland's elite law enforcement professionals.

Not only will they not face any consequences, I fully expect one of the following
(1) The officer(s) involved to retire on full pension with an unblemished record
(2) Any officer(s) not up for retirement to be allowed to continue their careers with an unblemished record.Possibly rewarded with a promotion.
(3) The garda press office to remind us how tough the gardai have it and that we should ignore the fact that they hung one of their own out to dry for doing the right thing.

Sycamore Tree

No legal action, investigation or charges arising from the findings in this report will send a message that the Gardaí can continue to be utterly corrupt and nothing will stop them.

McCabe is an Irish hero but his torment will go unpunished I fear.

Edgware

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Taylor was no more than a stooge to do Callinan's bidding. Their conduct was disgraceful, McCabe had his dignity shredded.

Just "following orders"" Not a defence