Police Ombudsman Criticises Missing Man Investigation

Twelve police officers have been disciplined over their actions following the disappearance of a 22-year-old man from the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.

James Fenton's body was found 40 metres from hospital grounds 10 weeks after he went missing from the mental health unit at the start of July 2010.

Mr Fenton climbed over a gate at the back of the building and is believed to have died a short time later.

Police failed to find the body despite conducted a search of hospital grounds and told his family they believed he was alive and staying with friends.

His mother, Janice Fenton, told the BBC she felt let down.

"My life sentence and nightmare is going to bed at night, closing my eyes and knowing that James lay 40 metres from the hospital ward, cold, alone, uncovered," Mrs Fenton said.

The Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, noted a catalogue of errors.

He noted officers failed to follow a number of leads in the initial hours after he disappeared, they were "rude and unsympathetic" to his family and they did not check the hospital's CCTV footage on the day that Mr Fenton went missing.

There was no attempt to trace his mobile phone signal for almost 12 hours after the investigation began and the officer responsible for supervising the initial search of the hospital grounds did not visit the site in person.

"The police response over the first weekend was in my view inadequate and lacked clear direction and purpose," the ombudsman said.

"There was a failure to follow through guidelines for the investigation into a high risk missing person. I don't think they grasped the seriousness of the situation initially and as a consequence they didn't follow through on some lines of inquiry and I think evidential opportunities were lost."

Dr Maguire added: "There was huge frustration among the family that they had to explain the case to different officers on different occasions and say the same thing. They felt that they weren't being listened to. They knew that James came from a very loving home and this was not characteristic of his behaviour."

"I would hope and expect to see changes in operational practice and in the way in which police engage with families in what is a very difficult but important situation where you are dealing with high risk, vulnerable people who are missing," Dr Maguire said.

A PSNI spokesman said officers had learned lessons from the case and accepted the ombudsman's findings.

They have issued sanctions against 12 officers. It has not been revealed if any officers have been sacked.

(GK)