Police will do better, a senior officer has promised following criticism of an investigation into a young woman’s death.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland was criticised by the Police Ombudsman for a “flawed” initial investigation into the death of showjumper Katie Simpson which “failed her family”.

Ms Simpson was initially assumed to have taken her own life, but Jonathan Creswell was later arrested for her murder.

His trial collapsed earlier this year following his sudden death.

placeholder image — Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck speaks to the media at the force's headquarters in Belfast following the publication of the Police Ombudsman report into the death of showjumper Katie Simpson, who died at Altnagelvin hospital in 2020, a week after an incident in Gortnessy Meadows, Lettershandoney. Picture date: Tuesday November 12, 2024.

Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said he acknowledged shortcomings in the investigation and said he apologised unreservedly for this.

“It is clear that we were not rigorous enough in our pursuit of all potential lines of enquiry and did not act quickly enough in responding to some of the concerns that were raised around Katie’s death,” he said.

“We relied too much on the lack of any presenting medical evidence around what had happened to Katie when she was first admitted to hospital and on the forensic post-mortem that was conducted on August 11 2020.

“Our systems failed to identify Creswell’s previous related, serious offending. We acknowledge this and reaffirm our position that we must and will do better, moving forward.”

Ms Simpson’s family has called for more accountability, particularly within the senior ranks of police.

While the Police Ombudsman recommended misconduct proceedings in relation to six officers, two have since retired, and for one no misconduct was proven.

Of the remaining three, one received written warning, while there was action aimed at improving performance for another and the final one received management advice.

Mr Beck stated that for police, it is “less about individual officers’ actions and more about our organisation not getting things right from the outset”.

He said 18 officers were initially considered as part of that investigation.

“15 of those officers were interviewed by the Ombudsman, and as a result of that, six of the officers were recommended for further misconduct proceedings, three of those officers received misconduct proceedings” he said.

“Those were three sergeants.”

Mr Beck also said there are now more offences in law in terms of violence than there were at the time of Ms Simpson’s murder in 2020.

“At the time of Katie’s murder, there were a number of gaps around legislation. Those gaps thankfully have been filled, working with the Department of Justice, we have new offences … a specific offence around non-fatal strangulation and since that legislation was brought in just over a year ago, we have over a thousand people arrested in terms of non-fatal strangulation offences,” he said.

“We have had further offences in terms of coercive control and domestic violence. We have had over 1,700 cases of arrests in respect of that particular offence since that new legislation was brought in and we have new offences in terms of stalking.

“We are certainly better equipped in terms of the legislation and what I would say to victims is that those figures demonstrate that we are using those powers, we are rigorously investigating those areas and I am more assured now that there is less opportunity for us to miss potential offending because the legislation allows is to take more swift and more appropriate action.”