Published Date: Jun 2015

A police officer who failed to conduct a proper investigation into a traffic collision and lied to cover it up has been convicted of perverting the course of justice following an investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office.

The constable, who has since resigned from the police, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

He had been appointed investigating officer following a crash between a lorry and a mini bus carrying special needs schoolchildren near Cullybackey in February 2009.

The driver of the mini bus suffered broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung, a child on the mini bus sustained a broken wrist and internal bleeding, and a care worker sustained a whiplash injury.

Despite assessing that the lorry driver was to blame, the investigating officer did not interview him. When later asked to produce a statement from the driver, he lied that he had misplaced it.

He later produced a false statement, made false entries on police computer systems, and lied to the Public Prosecution Service when they asked for more information about the case.

The officer admitted his guilt two years after the collision, when his line manager asked him to provide an urgent explanation for the lack of progress.

The case was subsequently referred to the Police Ombudsman’s Office for independent investigation.

Police Ombudsman investigators seized relevant police documents and records, spoke to a number of witnesses, and interviewed the officer under criminal caution.

They established that despite being required to submit a file to the Public Prosecution Service within six months of the collision, it was not until a month after this that he began taking statements from those involved.

It was a further seven months before he submitted a file on the case to the PPS, without a statement from the lorry driver. When asked why it was missing, the officer told the PPS he had misplaced it.

He then made a false appointment to “re-interview” the lorry driver, and sent a bogus interview transcript to the PPS.

The PPS responded with repeated requests for further information, which the officer ignored for five months.

In February 2011 he was asked by his line manager to provide an urgent explanation for his repeated failure to respond to the PPS. He then admitted that he had never at any stage interviewed or recorded a statement from the lorry driver.

When interviewed by a Police Ombudsman investigator, the officer said that after claiming to have lost the statement he “stupidly” thought he could rectify the situation. However, things “spiralled out of control” and in “a blind panic” he later produced the false statement.

The officer expressed deep remorse, accepted that he should have admitted his guilt earlier, and said that in seven years service he had never fabricated evidence in relation to any other case.

Following the Police Ombudsman’s investigation, a file was sent to the PPS which directed that the officer should be prosecuted for Perverting the Course of Public Justice.

After his conviction, the Police Ombudsman recommended that the officer should be brought before a formal police misconduct hearing, but before the hearing took place the Deputy Chief Constable accepted the officer’s resignation.

The PSNI also reinvestigated the collision, resulting in the lorry driver pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention. He received four penalty points and an absolute discharge.