Police review three cases recorded as suicide

Katie Simpson died in hospital six days after being found injured in a house in County Londonderry

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has confirmed it is reviewing three cases recorded as suicide, following the Katie Simpson case.

A Police Ombudsman report into the death of the County Armagh showjumper found that the police investigation was flawed and failed her family.

The report said there had been “a general lack of investigative mindset”, which led to her death in 2020 being treated as suicide for several months.

Jonathan Creswell was later charged with her murder.

Red flags missed

Creswell was found dead at home aged 36 while standing trial in April.

In a statement to BBC News NI on Friday the police said: "Following the Katie Simpson case, the Police Service of Northern Ireland is reviewing three cases recorded as suicide."

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.

Creswell, her sister's partner, had called 999 and pretended he had found her hanging from a stairwell.

But police later came to the conclusion that he had beaten her before strangling her.

Ms Simpson was admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital where she died six days later, having never regained consciousness.

Multiple red flags were missed before Creswell was eventually charged with her murder.

List of names

Alliance Party member of the Policing Board Nuala McAllister said she had privately given the chief constable a list of deaths she believed needed to be examined further.

She said she had been given the names by both individual police officers and family members.

Nuala McAllister said she is confident the cases are being investgated by senior officers

"I am confident and have been assured now that we have senior investigating officers that have been appointed, we have family liaison officers so that families do feel listened to," she told BBC News NI.

"But moving forward this is a much wider issue, we need to have total confidence in the PSNI.

"To do that we need to ensure the PSNI, that their practices, their procedures, are up to scratch when it comes to actually tackling violence against women and girls and where that has failed, where women have died, exploring every avenue, exploring every plausible circumstance and every explanation for what happened to that woman."

'Raise those concerns'

Democratic Unionist Party Policing Board member Cheryl Brownlee told Good Morning Ulster on Wednesday: "It has been raised at the board a number of times about various cases that may have similar threads to the Katie Simpson case.

"We have reported those and the police are doing further investigations into that."

She added: "I think that’s very critical that if anybody feels that there was a failing to get in contact and to raise those concerns."