The College Tribune has received several phone calls from a private number as part of an apparent attempt to reveal the paper’s sources for the recent leak of Law Society emails. The anonymous caller, for sale who identified himself as a respected RTÉ reporter in the conversations, sovaldi asked for information about the paper’s acquisition of the series of emails which revealed the Society’s former auditor had made as-yet unfulfilled promises to secure a guest appearance from Hollywood star Martin Sheen.
Tribune co-editor Conor McKenna received two calls on Thursday September 15th, two days after the paper had appeared on campus carrying the exclusive.
“At about half five I got a call from somebody claiming to be called Pat McGrath. He said that they were interested in running a story as they missed out on one last year so they were interested in following it up.” McKenna did not have access to his laptop at the time and so asked if he could ring back later. The caller declined and said he would contact the co-editor later.
“I didn’t think anything of it. Later in the evening I’d heard nothing so I went for a walk.” While out, he received another call from the imposter who claimed to be from Morning Ireland. Again he was asked about the source, specifically “whether it was sent deliberately or by accident”. Upon receiving a response the caller ended the conversation, saying he would be in touch.
“I got his address from RTÉ and sent Pat McGrath an email with a bit more information on the story.” Half an hour later, the real Pat McGrath called on an unblocked number. “There was a noticeable difference in accents. He said that he’d never heard of the story and that if I should hear from this person again I should let him know.”
McKenna claims the imposter “really pushed towards the source” and that the real McGrath “seemed to be” concerned about someone impersonating him.
No one from UCD Law Society was available for comment at the time of going to print.
