Junior Minister Aisling Reilly has emerged as the latest senior Sinn Féin representative to be photographed within feet of former party press officer Michael McMonagle while he was being investigated for sex offences.
The West Belfast MLA is pictured at Parliament Buildings on February 14 last year alongside the family of Daithí Mac Gabhann and representatives of the British Heart Foundation, for which McMonagle worked in a communications role.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill has denied seeing McMonagle on the same day or being aware that he worked for the charity, even though she and her adviser John Loughran are pictured a matter of feet away from the party’s former Stormont press officer, who was filming and taking photographs of the event for the British Heart Foundation.
McMonagle, whose employment with Sinn Féin ended nine months previous, after the party learned of a police investigation into sexual offences, was also part of a British Heart Foundation delegation that travelled to Westminster eight days after the Stormont event to support the Mac Gabhan family’s campaign for organ donation opt-out legislation.
The family met various MPs in Westminster’s Portcullis House, including Sinn Féin’s John Finucane and Paul Maskey.
The British Heart Foundation posted a series of photographs and videos of the Westminster event on social media and while McMonagle’s communications’ duties ordinarily included filming and taking photographs at events it is unclear whether he did so on the day in question as the charity is refusing to make further comment about his role.
It now appears McMonagle was in the proximity of at least five senior Sinn Féin representatives over the space of little over a week while under police investigation but none raised safeguarding concerns with his new employer.
The 42-year-old former Sinn Féin press officer, from Limewood Street in Derry, last month admitted a series of sex offences, including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
Two of his former colleagues in the Sinn Féin press office, Seán Mag Uidhir and Caolán McGinley, last week resigned from the party after it emerged they had provided references for McMonagle as he sought a new job with the British Heart Foundation.
Sinn Féin has not responded to requests for comment on the matter, the latest in a series of safeguarding controversies to embroil the party.
Ms O’Neill said on Wednesday that she was “not aware” McMonagle was at the Stormont event.
“We go into the hall with a number of people, he was not on my radar at all from when we took disciplinary action,” she said.
She had earlier told members of Stormont’s Executive Office committee that she knew nothing about McMonagle’s “whereabouts or employment” after he lost his job with Sinn Féin in June 2022.
Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole said: “These images just reinforce the serious questions and discrepancies in the account provided so far.
“The questions will not go away until they’re fully addressed by Sinn Féin.”
At the Policing Board on Thursday, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher was quizzed on remarks made earlier this week by Sinn Féin minister Conor Murphy, who claimed the party did not raise issues with the British Heart Foundation about McMonagle because they could “potentially be prejudicial” to the police investigation.
Mr Boutcher said he did not want to get “dragged into any political tit-for-tat”, describing police as having become the “lightning rod”.
He said he did not know much about the case, but added: “If indeed we did reach out to Sinn Féin to give information that concerned us about an individual that we felt they should know about, that wouldn’t prejudice an investigation … that’s just a responsibility around any notification requirements we’ve got.”
