Police in the North bungled the inquiry into a paramilitary attack dogged by allegations that officers tried to influence a forensic expert, a new report revealed today.
But Ombudsman Mrs Nuala O'Loan found no evidence that detectives investigating the dissident republican shooting at a Co Derry polling station wanted the scientist to compromise her work.
Mrs. Nuala O'Loan, Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
She was called in after concerns emerged during the trial of a man facing paramilitary charges for the gun attack in Draperstown in June 2001 in which two police officers and a young girl were injured.
Although the suspect was acquitted last September amid suggestions that the expert had felt under pressure, Mrs O'Loan insisted investigators were right to ask for forensic examinations.
She was scathing, however, in her appraisal of how the overall inquiry was handled.
With the Senior Investigating Office called in without complete training, Mrs O'Loan found his failure to achieve high standards of crime scene management had major consequences for the investigation.
She said: "There should have been a professional response to maximise forensic opportunities to catch and convict the perpetrators. This, unfortunately, did not happen."
Mrs O'Loan's team was also critical of the Scenes of Crime Officer for carrying out only a cursory visual examination on the night of the attack. He left after 50 minutes without having carried out a full forensic examination, taken photographs or secured any evidence.
"Evidence was left exposed to the elements overnight and to the possibility of loss of forensic value," the report said.
Other failures included:
- A photographer called in by police not developing all pictures taken and provide them to prosecutors.
- A civilian mapper not wearing protective clothes and possibly contaminating vital evidence found.
- Clothes worn by a suspect being packaged in paper bags rather than nylon requested by forensics.
This lapse led to cartridge discharge residue not being looked for, and prompted the trial judge to describe it as a "serious mishap".
A PSNI spokesman said: "Enclosed with our request to the Ombudsman was a report which highlighted our findings and outlined the action we were going to take.
"The PSNI welcomes the Ombudsman's comments that the police did not act improperly and the further comments about the forensic scientist's statements.
"Subsequent to the internal examination of this case police have already introduced a number of policies and procedures and will now consider the supplementary comments made by the Ombudsman."