Police missed body on sofa

The Foyle MLA was speaking as the Board's Human Rights and Professional Standards Committee was yesterday (Wednesday) briefed on the findings of the Police Ombudman's investigation into the case, which involved an incident in Strathfoyle.

"This was a tragic case and one from which lessons need to be learned and I am glad that the PSNI have now implemented changes to their policy in response to the Ombudsman's investigation," she said.

"Two officers have also received disciplinary sanctions for their failures in this case and I hope that we never see a repetition of this kind of incident."

Outlining the background to the case, Ms. Anderson continued: "On 14 September 2008, a lady reported to the PSNI that she had not seen her neighbour for over a week. She called back the following day to say that he still had not been seen. Later that afternoon, two officers were tasked to visit the man's home. One of them entered the property and conducted a cursory search, finding nothing.

"The following day, another two officers were sent to the house to try and establish the missing man's whereabouts. Again, an initial search failed to find him and it was only when a neighbour explained that the missing man had previously been found asleep under a blanket on the sofa that his decomposing remains were found.

"The post mortem revealed that the man had died before the initial call to police and there was no suggestion of foul play. Nevertheless, I am sure that many people will be concerned at the failures of the PSNI in this case.

"I would like to express my sympathy with the family of the dead man and to reiterate that we will continue to robustly hold the PSNI to account to ensure that failures like these are exposed and dealt with in order to prevent any repetition in the future."