13/09/2016
Police officer's failure to get interpreter 'completely compromised'
probe into woman who needed skin graft after being struck by car
The investigation was into a complaint from the
woman, a foreign national, who spent 10 days in hospital after being struck by
a car in east Belfast in January 2015.
She later lodged a complaint with the Police
Ombudsman’s Office stating that she had not been offered an interpreter and had
difficulty understanding the officer when he came to obtain her account after
her release from hospital.
She alleged that the officer’s subsequent report on
the incident was based almost entirely on the driver’s account - that he had
been travelling within the speed limit when the woman stepped off the footpath
“out of nowhere”.
The woman claimed the officer had not taken a
formal statement from her.
When interviewed, the officer said he had given the
woman “a fair opportunity” to provide her account of the incident.
He said he had no difficulty communicating with her
in English, but she had only a vague recollection of what had happened and had
not indicated that the driver had committed any offences.
He added that there had been no witnesses at the
scene and no further enquiries were conducted because of the lack of evidence.
He accepted, when it was put to him, that he should
have carried out house-to-house enquiries.
But he maintained there had been no need for
further enquiries when the woman’s solicitor raised concerns about the
investigation.
The solicitor wrote to the officer several times in
the months following the incident explaining the communication difficulties and
that the woman had since provided an account which contradicted the driver’s.
The officer said he did not reopen the case or take
a statement from the woman because he did not believe the driver had committed
an offence, or that the woman’s account would be enough to secure a
prosecution.
However, the Police Ombudsman investigator noted
that the officer’s role should have been to “gather evidence, regardless of how
strong he believes it to be, and let the Public Prosecution Service make
decisions about prosecution".
He concluded: “It appears the officer decided at
the scene that the driver had not committed any offences and then ignored the
woman’s evidence, provided via her solicitor, which opposed his view.“
“In doing so he failed to fully investigate this
incident.”
He recommended that the officer be disciplined and
the PSNI has since implemented the recommendation.
The investigator also pointed out that he and the
woman’s solicitor had found it helpful to use an interpreter when communicating
with the woman and said the officer should have done likewise.
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