‘Serious concerns’ over Ombudsman’s Office
Reports by Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman have been “heavily influenced” by families and their legal teams, the PSNI and others, a highly critical report has found.
The Criminal Justice Inspection published its findings on Monday, after examining the independence of the Office at the request of Ombudsman Al Hutchinson.
The body reported back on “serious concerns” – including what it called “flawed” investigative processes, “mistrust” among investigators and a “dysfunctional environment” created by serious divisions within senior management.
Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, Dr Michael Maguire, said the resulting lack of confidence in the Ombudsman’s Office needed to be urgently addressed.
“The Inspectorate believes that the ways in which the Police Ombudsman‘s office has dealt with these cases has served to undermine rather than enhance its decision-making capacity.
“As a consequence of these contributory factors, its operational independence has been lowered.”
He added: “The police need to believe complaints against them will be treated fairly and impartially while the community requires confidence that the accountability mechanisms in place are robust and able to deal with concerns around policing.”
Paul O’Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre told UTV that he believes Mr Hutchinson must resign in the wake of report.
“I think where we go from here is that we ask Al Hutchinson to resign”, Mr O’Connor said.
“We are involved in a number of key cases which actually feature in the report, and where it is quite clear that the actions of the Police Ombudsman have added to the anguish of the families because of countless delays, because of reports being changed for no discernable reason.
“It is simply not acceptable.”
