As CM considers legal challenge to McGrail Inquiry findings, Azopardi says ‘pay it from your own pocket’ 

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said he was taking “careful and detailed advice” on a possible legal challenge to some of the findings made against him in the McGrail Inquiry report. 

Sir Peter Openshaw, the chairman of the McGrail Inquiry, found that on numerous occasions, Mr Picardo had attempted “grossly improper” interference in a live police investigation, although he also found there was no actual interference and the investigation proceeded its normal course. 

Those criticisms have generated furious controversy and calls for the Chief Minister’s resignation, but Mr Picardo believes they are unfair and could be challenged in a court through judicial review or a constitutional motion. 

“They are very strong words, very unfairly and improperly used against the Chief Minister in my view,” he told GBC’s Viewpoint last week. 

“One man has given us a report of what he thinks the evidence means.” 

“Another man might have given us a different view.” 

“We do not rest on a system where decisions about one person's reputation or one person’s liability are ever made just by one man without the ability of appealing those,” Mr Picardo later added.  

“That’s why I'm telling you, in relation to those things where I'm advised that it's very likely that I could succeed in turning those around, I will consider whether or not to take that to the next stage in coming weeks and months.” 

Mr Picardo maintained that he believed he had not acted inappropriately and that those findings against him were not based on the evidence before the Inquiry and could be challenged. 

In recent days, the Opposition has called on Government ministers to distance themselves from the findings by supporting a motion of no confidence tabled by GSD Leader Keith Azopardi in Parliament. 

If just one minister broke ranks, it would mean the Chief Minister having to vacate the office. 

But the Chief Minister insisted he enjoyed the “fulsome support” of his ministerial colleagues. 

“They feel very aggrieved by some of the findings which, having read the report, they can also see are not substantiated by the evidence which was before the tribunal,” Mr Picardo said.  

And referring to recent public comment by some lawyers involved in the Inquiry following publication of the report, he added: “We all feel particularly aggrieved by the fact that certain people seem to be using this report only for political purposes when they've been funded by the taxpayers to represent individuals legally before the tribunal.” 

The political fallout from the publication of the Openshaw Report’s findings continued after the Viewpoint interview, with the GSD insisting that if Mr Picardo were to challenge some of the criticisms levelled at him, he should pay for it himself. 

“Mr Picardo established the Inquiry for it to find ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, in his own words,” Mr Azopardi said.  

“The truth found by Sir Peter Openshaw - a respected retired High Court Judge - is that Mr Picardo acted improperly and attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation on a number of occasions.”  

“Of course, now Mr Picardo finds this to be an inconvenient truth and talks disparagingly of the Inquiry report as just being one opinion.” 

“But the people of Gibraltar did not pay £8M for just an opinion.”  

“It was for the Inquiry to establish the facts and, presumably, for all participants to live with the outcomes one way or the other as would be the normal way in a public inquiry.” 

“It is for good reason that legal challenges to a public inquiry are very rare – it is because they are intended to deliver finality.” 

Mr Azopardi said one of the leading academic works on public inquiries stated that the conclusions of an inquiry had only been successfully challenged in one reported case. 

He said Mr Picardo had “stunningly” claimed that the Government had been “vindicated” and that he personally had been “exonerated”, adding: “This was false.” 

Mr Azopardi added it was “a massive contradiction” for Mr Picardo to now say he was contemplating a legal challenge. 

“Why is a legal challenge necessary if the Government have been ‘vindicated’ or he was ‘exonerated’,” he said. 

Mr Azopardi said the Government had stated that Gibraltar could finally draw a line under the matter and “move forward with confidence in the strength and integrity of our institutions.”  

“Given all that it is clear that any legal challenge could only be for Mr Picardo’s personal reasons,” he added.  

“Indeed, on the GBC programme he said that he had the right like ‘any citizen’ to file a challenge.” 

“That is of course right. But like ‘any citizen’ if he wants to file a legal challenge against the personal findings of truth made against him by the Inquiry then he should pay for it out of his own pocket.” 

“The taxpayer should not fund legal crusades by Mr Picardo as a private citizen against the inconvenient truth found by the Inquiry that he acted in a grossly improper manner on several occasions.”