It is “abundantly clear” the PSNI got things wrong in the initial investigation into the death of showjumper Katie Simpson, the force's chief constable Jon Boutcher has said.
Mr Boutcher told his oversight body, the Policing Board, that he would be meeting soon with the family of Ms Simpson to discuss failures in the investigation.
Ms Simpson, who was from Tynan, Co Armagh, died in hospital almost a week after an incident in Gortnessy Meadows, Lettershandoney, on August 3rd, 2020.
Her murder was originally thought by police to have been a suicide.
The trial of Jonathan Creswell (36) over the rape and murder of Ms Simpson ended in April following his sudden death.
Mr Boutcher said: “This was a shocking crime with a devastating impact on that family.
“The crime itself was shocking enough to endure for that family, the aftermath of the reporting and the examination of how the matter was initially dealt with, no doubt has brought even more upset and trauma and that is not lost on me.
“I am meeting the family in the near future and very much look forward to talking to them about what we did and did not do and what we got wrong.”
Mr Boutcher said he was limited about what he could say about the case as he was still waiting for the publication of a Police Ombudsman report.
But he said: “It is abundantly clear to me that we got things wrong from the beginning.
“There were a number of shortcomings in our initial investigation.
“We relied far too much on the lack of any presenting medical evidence around what had happened to Katie when she was first admitted to hospital and on the forensic post mortem that was conducted on August 11th 2020.”
He added: “We were not professionally curious enough and we did not do enough initially in responding to some of the concerns that were being raised.
“Even our systems failed to identify Creswell’s previous significant and related serious offending.
“In my view this is less about individual officers actions and more about this organisation not getting this right.
“I can’t apologise enough to the family.”
Mr Boutcher said his concerns were not just about how the PSNI responded to the death of Ms Simpson.
He said: “It is how a man previously convicted of such a heinous and similar crime, from what we now know was a controlling and coercive individual almost on an industrial scale, how he became something of a poster boy accepted in society and no-one put their hand up and reported him.”
