‘We’ve been let down by police’ say Lisburn family

A LISBURN man says his family has been let down after it was revealed seven police officers were disciplined for failings in the initial investigation into the death of 70-year-old Jim Heasley which the Police Ombudsman found ‘lacked effort and consideration’.

David Heasley, the brother of the popular local man who was attacked and killed as he walked home from a night out, spoke after the ombudsman found there had been a number of failings in the police response in the days after the brutal assault.

Mr Heasley had been walking home along Longstone Street and into Manor Drive when Jackie Allen, who had also been in the Pigeon Club earlier in the evening, beat and kicked the pensioner so badly that he was left in a coma for ten days before he passed away. He suffered injuries including a broken shoulder, cuts and bruising to his chin, eyes and face and his side.

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Allen was sentenced to three years in prison and a further three years on supervised licence last month after admitting Mr Heasley’s manslaughter. He said he had no recollection of the night.

It has now been confirmed that seven police officers were disciplined over their handling of the investigation into the death of Jim, known to everyone as ‘Sunshine’, in October 2010.

A spokesperson for the Ombudsman said that they found a series of failings in the initial police response after they were informed that Jim Heasley had been admitted to hospital with head injuries.

They said Jim’s injuries had not being photographed, nor was his clothing taken for analysis and they indicated there should have been a more robust examination of the incident scene on the night Jim was attacked. They also said police did not properly review all available CCTV evidence until a week after the attack and said the investigation should have been referred to the CID.

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The findings concluded: “Our investigation concluded that there appeared to have been an assumption by police that Jim had sustained his injuries as a result of a fall, rather than an attack. A total of seven police officers were disciplined, including five officers at supervisory level.”

David Heasley said: “They were treating it as a 70-year-old with a drink problem who had one fall too many, and that’s as far as they were prepared to go on it.”

He said no investigation took place into the attack until he went to the police station a week after the incident. There, a policeman told him that Jim was intoxicated and had only suffered a nick to his head indicating his injuries came from a drunken fall.

“A lot of things were just taken for granted and the police were in no position to take anything for granted,” said David who stressed they were very happy with the investigation after it was handed over to CID.

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He decided to do his own investigations and went with Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson to meet a member of the ambulance crew.

“Anyone who had seen the state Jim was in knew his injuries were not from a fall. But if I had not pushed it Jim’s death would have been simply overlooked.

“There was just a lack of effort and lack of consideration for Jim. What we want now is closure, There has been no justice for Jim and that is what we want. We feel the legal system has let him down and the police have let him down.”

In a statement the PSNI said it examined the police ombudsman’s findings.

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“We recognise that there were failings in the initial police handling of this case and we have apologised to the family for that.

“However we are glad that, thanks to the subsequent thorough and focused police investigation, this case was brought to court and an individual has now received a custodial sentence in connection with Mr Heasley’s death.”