Then, in early October, the PSNI chief constable said: that warning a charity of a possible police investigation into McMonagle would not have harmed the investigation, contradicting Conor Murphy.

Murphy later said he was “happy to accept” the police chief’s point of view.

Later that month a photo emerged showing Michelle O’Neill and McMonagle attending the same event in the Great Hall at Stormont while he worked for the British Heart Foundation.

He carried the charity’s banner as they entered the Parliament Buildings and mingled inside filming videos for the charity.

Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member Doug Beattie said he found it “hard to believe” that O’Neill “didn’t notice his former colleague” at the Stormont event.

O’Neill maintains she did not do so.

And then the British Heart Foundation released a statement.

The charity said its director, Fearghal McKinney, had a phone call with O’Neill in which she “acknowledged that recent comments from her and party colleagues questioning the due diligence process of the BHF were of no use”.

Additionally, the charity said it informed a senior Sinn Féin human resources official of the references to McMonagle in August 2023, contradicting statements made by Murphy and O’Neill.

O’Neill confirmed this and said contact between the charity and Sinn Féin’s human resources department had not been brought to the attention of the party leadership at the time.

She called it a “serious omission.”