There were multiple breaches by PSNI officers in the duty of care offered to a vulnerable teenager who was later knocked down and killed outside Toome, a Police Ombudsman investigation has found.

The Police Ombudsman has recommended that a new policy is put in place between the PSNI 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 paramedic and a trainee emergency technician left them alone at a bus shelter on the Moneynick Road in the early hours of January 20, 2018.

Ms McQuillan, from Dunloy, Co Antrim, was killed and Mr McFerran, from Rasharkin, sustained life-changing injuries in the collision which happened at 3.40am.

placeholder image — Shannon McQuillan. Credit: Pacemaker

The investigation found that the NIAS and PSNI had first encountered Ms McQuillan and Mr McFerran at two o’clock in the morning in a car park in Magherafelt, where Ms McQuillan was found to be unconscious after falling a number of times.

After a telephone call was made to Ms McQuillan’s mother by police, advising that her daughter and boyfriend were being taken to Antrim Area Hospital, officers left them in the care of two ambulance staff.

However, the same officers were called back to the car park by ambulance personnel after Ms McQuillan’s behaviour became erratic. 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 hospital.

Shortly before 3am, the ambulance pulled into a bus layby on the Moneynick Road, and staff onboard called for police assistance again following concerns about Ms McQuillan’s behaviour.

Two different police officers to those who attended earlier arrived at the layby at 3am while a third, who was more senior and operating in a supervisory capacity, attended minutes later.

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.

Police attended along with other emergency services, but Ms McQuillan was pronounced dead 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 of the accident.

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The Police Ombudsman investigation found that Ms McQuillan had fallen and hit her head a number of times before she came into contact with police and ambulance personnel in Magherafelt and also had visible injuries to her leg.

The accounts of police and NIAS staff who attended at the Moneynick Road were found to be inconsistent, with all three officers stating they were not informed Ms McQuillan had tried to harm herself. One stated that if they had been told Ms McQuillan had previously been unconscious it would have changed how the situation was handled by officers.

Enquiries established that two of the officers who were called to the Moneynick Road had Body Worn Video (BWV) cameras, although neither had activated them when they spoke to Ms McQuillan and Mr McFerran.

One of the ambulance staff told Ombudsman investigators that it had been the police who asked the couple to leave the ambulance and call a family member for a lift while the other said he had told police that Ms McQuillan had tried to harm herself.

The most experienced police officer at the scene said he was satisfied to leave the couple at the bus shelter after he said ambulance staff told him neither needed hospital treatment and they were not comfortable transporting them. He said he had also established both had battery life on their phones and it was his understanding arrangements had been made to pick them up.

The Ombudsman concluded that the communication between the police officers in attendance at the Moneynick Road and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) staff had been “wholly inadequate”. This also led to a separate PSNI investigation into the conduct of NIAS staff. A police file was submitted to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) but it decided that no criminal charges should be brought against any of the paramedics at the scene.

The 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; recognise the vulnerability and risks of leaving the two alone together beside a road, safeguard the couple’s welfare.

The Police Ombudsman’s Office submitted a file to the PPS relating to the three police officers who attended at Moneynick Road for the potential offences of Gross Negligence Manslaughter and Misconduct in Public Office. The PPS directed that none of the police officers should be prosecuted.

Ms McQuillan’s family requested a review of this decision and in January 2021, the PPS advised the Police Ombudsman that the outcome was no prosecution.

Subsequent PSNI misconduct proceedings found that the conduct of two of the three officers who had attended the ambulance amounted to gross misconduct. One was dismissed from the PSNI, the other was given a written warning. The dismissal was set aside on appeal, but the officer passed away before a new hearing could be held.

The third officer was disciplined for failing to submit and retain her own original signed statement about the incident, while another officer who amended the statement and failed to ensure that the original was kept, was given advice to improve her conduct.