There were multiple breaches by Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers in the duty of care offered to a vulnerable teenager who was later knocked down and killed in Co Antrim in 2018, a Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland investigation has found.
The office of the ombudsman has recommended a new policy is put in place between the force and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to deal with people who are intoxicated and refuse medical treatment.
Shannon McQuillan, a 19-year-old law student, and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Owen McFerran, were both hit by a van after three PSNI officers, a NIAS paramedic and a trainee emergency technician left them alone at a bus shelter on the Moneynick Road in Magherafelt in the early hours of January 20th, 2018.
Ms McQuillan was killed and Mr McFerran sustained life-changing injuries in the collision which occurred at 3.40am.
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The ombudsman investigation found that the NIAS and PSNI had first encountered Ms McQuillan and Mr McFerran at 2am in a car park in Magherafelt, where Ms McQuillan was found to be unconscious after falling a number of times.
Following a discussion between Ms McQuillan, ambulance staff and police, it was agreed officers would follow the ambulance to a roundabout in Magherafelt to ensure it proceeded to Antrim Area Hospital.
Shortly before 3am, the ambulance pulled into a bus layby on the Moneynick Road, and staff on-board called for police assistance again following concerns about Ms McQuillan’s behaviour.
Following a discussion between the medical team and PSNI officers, the couple got out of the ambulance and were left, alone, at a bus shelter on the Moneynick Road.
At 3.38am the police received the first of three phone calls about two people walking in the middle of the Moneynick Road and two minutes later a motorist informed police he had collided with two people on the same road.
Ms McQuillan died at the scene while Mr McFerran was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Subsequent tests established that both had high levels of alcohol in their blood at the time.
The ombudsman concluded that the communication between the police officers in attendance at the Moneynick Road and the NIAS staff had been “wholly inadequate”.
The ombudsman investigation found that there had been “multiple breaches in the duty of care offered” to Ms McQuillan and Mr McFerran by police officers.
These included failing to complete even the most basic checks in relation to them, failing to recognise the vulnerability and risks of leaving the two alone together beside a road and failing to safeguard the couple’s welfare.
Subsequent PSNI misconduct proceedings found the conduct of two of the three officers who had attended the ambulance amounted to gross misconduct.
The ombudsman also recommended a new policy be put in place between the PSNI and NIAS for dealing with people who are intoxicated and refuse medical treatment. – PA
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