Máiría Cahill ‘failed’ by PSNI abuse investigation

Alleged child abuse victim Máiría Cahill was “failed” by a disjointed Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigation, a police watchdog has said.

Máiría Cahill ‘failed’ by PSNI abuse investigation

By Michael McHugh

Alleged child abuse victim Máiría Cahill was “failed” by a disjointed Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigation, a police watchdog has said.

In 2010 Ms Cahill told officers she had been sexually abused by alleged IRA member Martin Morris —who was acquitted of rape and denies all wrongdoing —from 1997 to 1998.

She said she was subsequently subjected to an IRA interrogation over her allegations.

The North’s Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire said four officers should be disciplined over shortcomings in the police response.

He criticised the force’s decision not to hold a serious case review and the circumstances of the choice to split its investigation across two units: one with expertise in terrorist cases and another specialised in dealing with victims of sexual assault.

“I accept that police wanted to move quickly on the sexual allegations and to use their different expertise to maximum effect,” he said.

“While I do not agree that this led to evidence being diluted, it did bring about a disjointed approach by police in their investigations and their treatment of Ms Cahill.

“There is no evidence they considered any other approach, such as creating a team with the range of skills to investigate these matters as one case.”

Ms Cahill, then aged 16, had told police she was subjected to a 12-month ordeal of sexual abuse.

She alleged republican paramilitaries conducted their own inquiry and subjected her to interrogation before forcing her to confront her alleged attacker.

Her allegations shone a light on how the IRA dealt with alleged sex abusers when co-operation with the police in republican communities was extremely limited.

The attempted prosecutions of Mr Morris for alleged sex abuse and IRA membership — and four others accused of IRA membership linked to Ms Cahill’s claims of a republican cover-up — never got to trial because three women withdrew their evidence.

A review by the former DPP in England and Wales, Keir Starmer, said the handling by the North’s Public Prosecution Service of what were planned to be three separate trials had “let down” the three women.

The Ombudsman’s office said it found that the PSNI investigation had failed the victims, but did not support the allegations that it chose not to arrest some of the individuals concerned because they were police informants and that it had been subject to political interference.

The failings included the PSNI’s “inconsistent” approach in its investigation of some of the people suspected of IRA membership, which in one case led to an individual not being arrested and questioned.

The Ombudsman found no evidence that anyone had been protected from prosecution or that the PSNI investigation became subject to adverse political interference.

The Ombudsman’s investigation did not find that Ms Cahill had to direct how the investigation progressed, but said the force’s lack of a strategy for researching information already in the public domain contributed to her mounting concerns.

Three of the officers recommended for action have been disciplined. The fourth had retired.

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