A damning report has found that a police investigation into the murder of 21-year-old showjumper Katie Simpson was "flawed" and failed her family.
Ms Simpson died in hospital six days after an incident at a house at Lettershandoney, Co Derry, in August 2020.
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland delivered its verdict on the PSNI investigation into the murder of Ms Simpson this morning.
It found detectives had treated her death as a suicide for months, despite repeated warnings about her killer Jonathan Creswell.
Creswell was found dead on the second day of his trial for her murder. He had been the boyfriend of Katie's sister, and had also been in a relationship with Katie.
The murder trial heard that he had beaten and strangled her after discovering she had begun a new relationship.
He then tried to make it look like she had attempted to take her own life.
The report found that there had been "multiple reports" from members of the public and concern expressed by some police officers that Creswell had been subjecting Ms Simpson to "controlling and coercive behaviour" and that taking her own life would have been out of character.
Police also knew in the early stages of the investigation that Creswell had a prior conviction for assaulting a previous partner.
"Intelligence received by police both prior to, and following, Katie's death referenced that she may have been the victim of controlling behaviours, that the attempted suicide was suspicious, that Katie had not fallen from a horse, and that medical staff had also expressed concerns about the circumstances of Katie’s injuries," it said.
"Although it is clear that this intelligence was viewed and logged by police, it did not change the direction of the police investigation.
"There appeared to be a general lack of an investigative mindset which contributed to shortcomings in evidence identification and retrieval, scene management and identification, a willingness to accept at face value the accounts from Jonathan Creswell, and ultimately confusion around the ownership of the police investigation," said Hugh Hume, Police Ombudsman Chief Executive, speaking after the investigation findings were given to the Simpson family.
The Police Ombudsman said the early stages of the investigation had been hindered by a "working assumption" by a number of officers that her injuries had been self-inflicted.
The investigation found that there were no effective searches carried out at Katie’s address and that no supervisory officer attended the house at the initial stages of the investigation.
The Police Ombudsman recommended disciplinary proceedings against six officers.
Two have since left the PSNI and the cases could not proceed.
One officer got a written warning, two others received less serious sanctions and one had no finding of misconduct made against them.
The ombudsman's investigation focused on the early stages of the PSNI inquiry from the initial call to the ambulance service in August 2020 until the case was passed to the major investigation team in January of the following year.
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Creswell's 'psychopathic evil' - Simpson family
Speaking to the media, the Simpson family said they felt the disciplinary action had been concentrated on the lower ranking officers and ought to have been directed at more senior investigators.
They had been left with the "gnawing sense" that there had been "blame passing" going on.
Katie's father Jason said their daughter had been "stolen" from them.
Her mother Noleen said the family had been failed and but for the actions of a senior officer and some family members who pursued the issue, Creswell would still be controlling, hurting and murdering women.
Nothing should take away from his "psychopathic evil", they said.
Additional complaints
The Police Ombudsman said it had two additional complaints - one of them linked to the original investigation.
It includes allegations which may amount to criminal wrongdoing against a member of the police service.
It said for that reason it was unable to provide some of the details of its investigation at this stage in order to protect the integrity of the fresh probe.
