Editorial: There was a fundamental and obvious failure by PSNI detectives in the Katie Simpson murder

​The police are so heavily scrutinised by the police ombudsman’s office that it can seem they are held to an impossible standard.

​In the last year alone more than 200 officers received discipline or performance action. At that pace within a decade a very high proportion of the PSNI, a police force under immense pressure, will have findings against them. And from an ombudsman’s office that has made more than its own share of errors, yet is rarely subject to proper scrutiny.

However, legitimate concerns about how policing in Northern Ireland is assessed and monitored should be set aside on this occasion. The ombudsman’s office has just completed a report into an obvious, devastating, and utterly unacceptable PSNI failure: that relating to the brutal murder of Katie Simpson.

The 21-year-old showjumper from Tynan, Co Armagh, died in hospital almost a week after an incident in Lettershandoney in August 2020. Police thought she had taken her own life.

This was not just a brief misapprehension. Her sister’s partner Jonathan Creswell was not arrested until the following year. The violent thug killed himself during his trial for murder.

It is astonishing that detectives were not markedly more sceptical about the causes of Katie Simpson’s death, given that the suicide was suspicious, that she was said to have been subject to controlling behaviour and given that medical staff had expressed concerns about the circumstances of her injuries. There were no effective searches at her address.

The ombudsman investigation concluded it had "failed" Ms Simpson's family and criticised a "lack of investigative mindset".

Police officers need to have an elementary understanding of human nature and its capacity for badness. Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck says they will do better in future. They must do so in such situations.