Walter Finch
A PUBLIC slanging match has erupted after Fabian Picardo resurrected his dispute with former Commissioner of Police Ian McGrail during his GibTalk on Saturday.
Picardo, in his role as main speaker at the popular TED Talks-style event, took advantage of the stage to repeat a contentious claim examined in depth during last year’s McGrail inquiry.
“In May of that year [2020], the principal law officer of Gibraltar, the Commissioner of Police, came into my office and lied to my face,” he told the audience during his speech Picardo’s Inferno in the 10th Circle of Hell – Brexit in the Time of COVID.
“Not an easy year,” he added.
The comment refers to the nebulous episode surrounding the highly controversial resignation of McGrail in June 2020 amid claim and counterclaim that eventually led to a public inquiry.
In a statement fired out by his lawyer the following day, McGrail criticised the leader for using the platform to accuse him of ‘deceit’.
“This baseless and defamatory assertion has been rigorously challenged and publicly refuted under forensic scrutiny during the Inquiry, the findings of which are pending,” it said.
READ MORE: Nuclear submarine docks in Gibraltar: British vessel is part of ‘cutting edge’ fleet
“And yet Mr. Picardo persists in seeking to tarnish Mr. McGrail’s integrity.”
The letter went on to blast Picardo’s ‘pattern of conduct that is entirely unbecoming of a minister of Gibraltar.’
It concluded by asserting Picardo had ‘abused the privilege afforded to him by the [GibTalks] platform, using it not to enlighten or inspire, but to launch yet another spiteful and unsubstantiated attack on a man whose reputation remains under the careful and impartial scrutiny of the Inquiry.”
Just hours later, Picardo released his own statement claiming he ‘genuinely believes’ McGrail lied to him and he would ‘not be prevented from doing so by any condemnation rolled out by Mr McGrail and his taxpayer-funded lawyers.’
“The Openshaw Inquiry is not into whether Mr McGrail lied to me or not, but it is, in my view, abundantly, forensically and objectively clear that Mr McGrail did lie to me at No 6 Convent Place.
“It is equally clear to me that a Commissioner of Police, or any other Office of the Crown, lying to a Chief Minister should not be acceptable to any Gibraltarian.
“The fact is that Mr McGrail’s condemnation is entirely irrelevant to me and to my clear recollection of his deception.
“In my GibTalk, I was reflecting personally on what happened to me in the past 10 years.
“Mr McGrail’s part in that is only anecdotally relevant, but not hugely important in the context of the events in my most recent decade in Government.”
The spat comes in the shadow of the forthcoming report to be issued by Sir Peter Openshaw into the circumstances surrounding McGrail’s retirement.
The highly anticipated document is set to land ‘unless any unforeseen contingency arises’ in ‘late spring 2025’.
Its arrival will follow a lengthy ‘Maxwellisation process’, in which any party set to be criticised will have the chance to respond ahead of publication.
The grand scope of the inquiry heard evidence from McGrail and officers of the Royal Gibraltar Police.
It also heard from high-ranking members of the government – including Fabian Picardo – and senior lawyers at Hassans law firm.
So the news that Openshaw has set aside three months for the parties to digest and respond to criticism will likely have a few powerful individuals on the Rock squirming.
“It suggests that at least a few people are going to receive some gloves-off of criticism,” a source told this newspaper.
“However, the ‘Maxwellisation process’ is actually a way to put those gloves back on.”
The inquiry has also received ‘additional evidence’ since the hearings ended in June, throwing another spanner into the works for those wondering what to expect.
