The unprecedented exodus of PSNI officers retiring while under investigation for the Jonathan Creswell case is continuing.
The latest figures show a further two officers from the second Police Ombudsman investigation have retired, bringing the total to five.
This means just two of the seven officers under investigation remain serving.
Across two separate Ombudsman investigations, 13 officers were originally cited – six in the first and seven in the second.
Of the first tranche, one officer was cleared, three were disciplined and two retired.
Adding these figures to the current seven brings the overall total to retire to date while under investigation to seven – over half the officers cited.
However, retirement may not mean the end of matters if criminal misconduct is suspected, with the Ombudsman previously confirming this may potentially be the case.
The identities and ranks of the officers involved are known, but are not being published at this time.
Asked for the latest figures, a PSNI spokesperson said: “Seven officers have been notified by the Police Ombudsman that they are under investigation following complaints. Five officers have retired. No officers are suspended or have been repositioned in relation to this investigation.”
PSNI conduct came under scrutiny after Creswell came very close to getting away with murdering showjumper Katie Simpson, whose death was treated as suicide despite repeated warnings about his past convictions.
He was jailed for attacking his previous partner, Abi Lyle, in 2009, in strikingly similar circumstances, including strangulation.
Even when a murder inquiry was finally launched by a different policing team, problems persisted.
Creswell claimed he rescued Katie – the younger sister of his partner, Christina – from hanging, before placing her unresponsive into her car and driving to hospital.
He had, in fact, subjected her to a merciless six-hour interrogation the previous night over her new relationship, while holding her captive in his car, driving over the border and back, stopping at various locations to assault and rape her.
Creswell then brought her to his home shortly after midnight on 3 August 2020 and kept her in a bedroom.
While others in the house, including his two very young children, slept nearby, Creswell’s torture of Katie persisted.
At some point between arriving home and taking the children to his mother’s the next morning, he strangled Katie, then staged a scene to make it appear she had taken her own life.
Despite glaring inconsistencies, the PSNI took their information from Creswell, even though his past conduct was being repeatedly flagged as Katie fought for her life.
She passed away on August 9, 2020, having never regained consciousness.
The full facts of what really happened remain unknown, and hopes of establishing them evaporated when Creswell took his own life 24 hours into his trial last year.
Regardless of repeated warnings about Creswell’s propensity for strangulation, violence, ferocious jealousy and control, police simply refused to listen.
Apparently, this was partly because his previous convictions had mysteriously disappeared from his record.
There was also clear ambivalence; when later questioned, a senior officer contended: “Creswell’s previous convictions or being a bad boy does not make him a murderer, and evidence was required.”
This is inaccurate, as the threshold is reasonable suspicion, with evidence gathered through investigation.
Other information also strangely vanished from the case log, only to resurface following significant challenge.
The Ombudsman initially launched an investigation in 2021 after Creswell’s arrest – named Operation Gambart – with details partially disclosed in November 2024, when it was revealed two officers had retired while under investigation.
Much remains withheld due to three new complaints, one of which relates to the original investigation and, according to the Ombudsman, “may potentially involve criminal misconduct”.
Another centres on failures of duty and professional conduct in the second investigation, while the third – brought by a former victim of Creswell – was closed last year but reopened after information disputing both PSNI claims and the Ombudsman’s original findings emerged.
