Leaks to journalists from garda briefings 'outrageous', senior garda tells tribunal

The tribunal heard that 26 "exclusives" were published in the Irish Sun newspaper by journalist Eavan Murray, which gardaí believed were drawn from Critical Incident Reports. These included two rape cases, two "suspicious approaches to children", a possible "Tiger" kidnapping, and a break-in to the home of a government minister.

Critical Incident Reports - internal garda briefings outlining serious incidents - contain details of murders, shootings, aggravated burglaries and other serious incidents which have occurred in the previous 24 hours, the tribunal was told.

The reports were forwarded by the former head of the garda press office Supt David Taylor to his private email account, Chief Supt Francis Clerkin told the tribunal today.

"I took it extremely seriously. I felt he was compromising security systems. He was pushing information outside the garda network," Chief Supt Clerkin said.

"I felt it was outrageous what he was doing," the chief superintendent added.

Barrister Micheál P O'Higgins, representing the garda commissioner, said that Supt Taylor "appeared to be operating a parallel press office" after he was transferred to the traffic division in Dublin Castle.

"He was certainly providing a lot of info to particular journalists, yes," Chief Supt Clerkin said.

Chief Supt Clerkin said that gardaí obtained a search warrant to inspect a private Eircom email account and find out where the reports went from there, but the majority of the information on the private account was deleted.

Questioned by the tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton, Chief Supt Clerkin said he had never forwarded garda documents to his own private email and would not do so. He said there might be a reason to do this, but he could not think of one.

The Chief Supt said that he could receive email on his mobile phone, but this was on his garda account.

The tribunal is looking at claims by former press officer Supt David Taylor that he was directed to brief journalists negatively about garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Chief Supt Clerkin said his investigation had nothing to do with Sgt McCabe, and that he had followed where the evidence took him after he was asked to investigate leaks about an incident in which two Roma children were taken into garda custody in 2013.

Following a direction from the DPP in August 2016 not to prosecute Supt Taylor for unauthorised disclosures in breach of the Garda Siochana Act 2005, Supt Clerkin wrote to the DPP asking about a prosecution under section 21 of the data protection acts.

The DPP replied ruling out a prosecution for data breaches in February 2017.

Supt Taylor also sought a judicial review of the investigation, stating that a 'Viber' message had been sent to someone which emanated from his account, and it might have originated on a phone seized by garda investigators, raising questions over the integrity of evidence.

Chief Supt Clerkin said he had "no discussion with Commissioner O'Sullivan about the investigation", and reported to his line manager, Assistant Commissioner John Twomey.

"My job was to follow the evidence, to establish what happened," Chief Supt Clerkin said.

The tribunal resumes tomorrow.

Earlier: Former head of the garda press office David Taylor had over 11,000 contacts with journalists in the four-month period from September 2014 to December 2014, after he was transferred out of the office.

Just under one quarter of the contacts were with Eavan Murray, a crime correspondent with the Irish Sun newspaper, the Charleton tribunal heard today.

The tribunal is looking at claims by Supt Taylor that he was ordered to brief journalists negatively about whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Chief Superintendent Francis Clerkin said he was asked to investigate if there were breaches of garda discipline or legislation following a report from Children's Ombudsman Emily Logan after two Roma children were removed from their family in Tallaght by gardaí in October 2013.

Chief Supt Clerkin said it was his decision to choose Superintendent James McGowan, husband of former commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan, as part of his team for the inquiry, and he had "no conversation with Commissioner O'Sullivan at any point in this investigation".

Chief Supt Clerkin said that a report prepared in Tallaght about the Roma case was emailed to senior garda officers in Dublin and to assistant commissioners. The inquiry interviewed anyone who had possession of the report, including the superintendent in charge in Tallaght, and Supt Taylor.

Phone records showed that Supt Taylor was in contact with the superintendent in Tallaght, the tribunal heard.

In December 2014, both superintendents were asked to hand over their mobile phones, which they did voluntarily, chief Supt Clerkin said.

"The phone we had was not the mobile device Supt Taylor had in October 2013," Chief Supt Clerkin said. "However, we did see other information on that phone which caused me alarm and concern."

An analysis of Supt Taylor’s phone found 12 instances of "unauthorised disclosures to journalists" when the superintendent was no longer garda press officer, Chief Supt Clerkin said.

The investigation then sought further call records, and discovered that of 11,000 contacts with journalists between September and December 2014, 2,800 (24%) were with Irish Sun journalist Eavan Murray.

The garda investigation also found that "Critical Incident Reports" detailing serious incidents nationwide were forwarded by Supt Taylor to his personal email account. Chief Supt Clerkin said that the team suspected the reports were being forwarded from there to journalists, but they could not verify this as information in the personal email account was "being continuously deleted".

"He seemed to be frequently deleting messages as he we went along. There seemed to be 70% of the messages deleted," Chief Supt Clerkin said.

In February 2015, a second mobile phone and a laptop computer were seized from Supt Taylor. Messages on this phone had been deleted, the tribunal was told, leaving no record of the 1,677 SMS text message contacts on the phone.

Supt Taylor was arrested and questioned in April 2015, and on August 4, 2015, a file was sent to the to DPP, which recommended prosecution for unlawful disclosure of information. The DPP later directed no prosecution.

Chief Supt Clerkin said it was his understanding that a decision was taken in February of this year to discontinue all disciplinary proceedings.

It was put to Chief Supt Clerkin that Supt Taylor said he was "targeted" to be "discredited" by An Garda Síochána.

"I simply don't accept that. As far as I'm concerned all I ever did was follow the evidence that was presented to me, and it led me to Supt Taylor," Chief Supt Clerkin said.

The tribunal continues.