Officers pursuing sex crimes ‘extracted’ to deal with riots

Police officers tasked with investigating sex crimes and supporting victims had to be redeployed last week to deal with rioting in Northern Ireland, a senior Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer has revealed.

Ch Supt Zoe McKee told MPs that 24 officers were “extracted’ from her team to deal with the public disorder which she said had stemmed from “violence” involving “a women and girls’ offence”.

The chief superintendent said a shortfall of £21m in police funding was affecting their ability to prosecute offenders.

Wednesday’s hearing was part of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s ongoing inquiry into violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland.

“It went on for the past week, every day there was a review of resources and a surge out to support front-line policing” she added.

Addressing the issue of a lack of police funding in prosecuting offenders, she added: “We have officer numbers at the lowest ever level at 6,200 and we should be sitting at 7,500.

“That leaves real challenges which affects how we deliver services, support victims and prosecute offenders.”

The senior officer said the majority of victims from the recent disorder were women and children, many of whom were displaced from their homes.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said it was a “stark reminder” of how such disorder had a material impact on the police ability to help victims of violence against women and girls.

Committee members also heard about the scale of violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland and the challenges facing policing and the justice system.

Ch Supt McKee said it was now an “epidemic” as she revealed that 28% of all victims of crime are domestic-abuse related and 71% of women of all ages experience harassment in public places.

The committee also heard from Sonya McMullan from Women’s Aid and Dr Siobhan McAlister, a criminology lecturer from Queen’s University, Belfast.

Ms McMullan said Stormont’s new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls cannot be a “tick box” exercise and must be followed up with resources.

She also said Northern Ireland is not a “victim friendly” place to go through the criminal justice system, pointing to a recent domestic violence case which took five years to complete.

“Women cannot afford to put their lives on hold for five years and that is why there is such a high rate of drop outs before cases are concluded,” she said.

Supt McKee also linked a legacy of mistrust in policing to the reluctance of some victims in coming forward.

She was responding to a question from SDLP leader Claire Hanna.