Police Officer Failed To Investigate Homophobic Attack

A police officer failed to properly investigate an alleged homophobic attack at a bar in Co Fermanagh, the Police Ombudsman has found.

The watchdog was tasked to investigate an incident in December 2018 after a member of bar staff alleged he was subjected to homophobic abuse. The victim suffered a split lip and chipped teeth when he was punched in the face by an angry customer at the end of the night.

He complained that the investigating officer let the attacker off with a caution due to his status in the local community.

The policer officer in question has since been disciplined after enquiries found that he did not treat the incident with the seriousness it deserved.

Watchdog investigations found that the officer had initially recommended that the attacker should receive a Community Resolution Notice (CRN) – a means of dealing with low level offending – rather than being considered for prosecution. This decision was found to be a "significant failing".

The officer later admitted to making the recommendation without first looking at photographs of the victim's injuries, which showed wounds to the interior and exterior of his lip.

The officer claimed not to have known there were any photos and said there was a lack of medical evidence, however an entry in the police case file should have alerted him to the photographic evidence.

A watchdog investigator said: "In my view, the photographs alone were grounds for investigating the potential offence of Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (AOABH)."

The ombudsman's office also expressed concern that no reasonable rationale for disregarding the alleged hate crime element and for treating the incident as common assault rather than AOABH had been found.

The officer has since been disciplined, however no action was taken against his line manager, who approved the decision to issue the attacker with a CRN.

The manager explained that she made the decision based on information provided by the investigating officer. By the time the victim's complaint was investigated by the Police Ombudsman's Office, the line manager had already ordered the officer to obtain the photos of the victim's injuries, to complete a more thorough investigation, and to submit a file to the Public Prosecution Service.



(JG/CM)