Police apologise for Norman Moffatt investigation fails

• Norman Moffatt, 73, was murdered in January 2001 in Coleraine, County Londonderry.
• A review by the Police Ombudsman has revealed flaws in the police investigation.
• The police have apologised to Mr Moffatt’s family and accepted the findings of the report.

The police have apologised to the family of a Coleraine retiree who was murdered after a watchdog review discovered major flaws in the inquiry.

In January 2001, Norman Moffatt, 73, was attacked while walking down Railway Road in Coleraine, County Londonderry. He passed away two months later.

A subsequent examination by the Police Ombudsman revealed flaws in the police investigation.

The police stated categorically that they accepted the findings of the reports.

Mr. Moffatt’s son Barry responded to the apology, saying, “It will always be difficult to swallow that our father’s murder was solvable but will now never be owing to police blunders.”

Following the acquittal of a man charged with the 73-year-murder old’s in 2013, Mr Moffatt’s family filed a complaint with the ombudsman.

The ombudsman’s investigation upheld the complaint, revealing several flaws in the police investigation.

According to the report, there was a failure to forensically examine blood on the pavement, which “may have aided in the identification of a suspect.”

The ombudsman called the initial search for a firearm “cursory.”

It went on to say that “documentation indicated that no thorough search to include nearby gardens or rooftops was conducted” until Mr Moffatt died.

The review also discovered that police failed to conduct some house-to-house inquiries on time.

One witness statement was not recorded until five years after the incident, according to evidence.

The review also stated that there was “a strong possibility that evidence was lost or, at the very least, contaminated” as a result of the delay in examining some of Mr Moffatt’s clothing following the attack.

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