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Family handout<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe police investigation into the death of showjumper Katie Simpson was flawed and failed her family, a report by the Police Ombudsman has found. <\/p>\n It identified multiple failures, including a willingness to believe the account of Jonathan Creswell, the man who was later charged with her murder.<\/p>\n The ombudsman also said police were aware from an early stage of the investigation that Creswell had been convicted in 2010 for assaulting another woman.<\/p>\n The report said there had been \u201ca general lack of investigative mindset\u201d, which led to her death in 2020 being treated as suicide for several months.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Disciplinary action has been taken against three officers as a result.<\/p>\n The ombudsman said it had received two new complaints, one of which is linked to the original investigation and includes allegations, which may amount to criminal wrongdoing, against a member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). <\/p>\n It added that the PSNI investigation was hindered by the misleading working assumption that Ms Simpson\u2019s injuries were self-inflicted, despite “multiple reports from members of the public” that Ms Simpson had been the victim of controlling and coercive behaviour by Creswell.<\/p>\n Some police officers had also expressed concern that she had been the victim of coercive control. <\/p>\n In addition to those suspicions, medical staff had also expressed concerns about how Ms Simpson\u2019s injuries happened, the watchdog said. <\/p>\n Officers were also warned at an early stage that she was unlikely to survive her injuries. <\/p>\n However, they failed to give sufficient consideration to gathering physical evidence from her, including taking blood samples and photographs of her injuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms Simpson, 21, from Tynan in County Armagh, was taken to hospital with serious injuries after an incident in a house in County Londonderry, in August 2020.<\/p>\n Creswell, his sister’s partner, had called 999 and pretended he had found her hanging from a stairwell.<\/p>\n But police later came to the conclusion that he had beaten her before strangling her. <\/p>\n Katie was admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital where she died six days later, having never regained consciousness.<\/p>\n Multiple red flags were missed before Creswell was eventually charged with her murder.<\/p>\n Creswell was found dead at home<\/a> aged 36 while standing trial for murder in April.<\/p>\n Three women charged with helping him cover up the murder received suspended sentences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ombudsman’s investigation found that there were “no effective searches carried out at Katie\u2019s address” after her death and communication devices were not seized.<\/p>\n In addition, no supervisory officer attended the house at the initial stages of the police investigation.<\/p>\n Officers recovered two mobile phones but these were “old devices” used by Ms Simpson and no other action was taken at that time to find her latest phone. <\/p>\n The watchdog’s report said her phone was later found “hidden in a field” after Creswell was arrested in March 2021 and interviewed by police.<\/p>\n The Police Ombudsman chief executive Hugh Hume said: \u201cThere appeared to be a general lack of an investigative mindset which contributed to shortcomings in evidence identification and retrieval, scene management and identification, a willingness to accept at face value the accounts from Jonathan Creswell, and ultimately confusion around the ownership of the police investigation.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has accepted there were “a number of shortcomings” in the early stages of the police investigation and has met Ms Simpson\u2019s family to apologise<\/a>.<\/p>\n He told a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board in August that the PSNI had displayed a mindset which had not been “professionally curious enough”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Prior to Cresswell\u2019s arrest, several people, including relatives of Ms Simpson, had raised concerns about him.<\/p>\nHow did Katie Simpson die?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Katie’s phone ‘hidden in field’ <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n‘Not professionally curious enough’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n