Katie Simpson: Why did the search for her killer take so long?

A senior police officer is accused of resisting the investigation into the death of show jumper Katie Simpson as a murder.

The 21-year-old died in hospital six days after an incident at a house in County Londonderry in August 2020.

In the months following Katie’s death, police treated her death as a suicide before upgrading the investigation to murder.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the murder of Katie Simpson had devastated a family and their suffering continued unimaginably.

At the time of Katie’s death, Det. Ch. Insp. John Caldwell was leading a large investigation team based at Maydown PSNI station in Derry.

Nuala McAllister, an Alliance MP and member of the Policing Board, told a BBC Spotlight investigation that a police officer from another team who wanted to push ahead with an investigation had encountered resistance.

“I know that there was one individual officer who put in a lot of work and actually brought the matter to his superior and said, ‘This is not right here.’

“He faced a lot of resistance, not from his supervisor but within the team in the district where Katie lived and where the death actually occurred,” she said.

“There was a police team in the PSNI that just didn’t want to know anything about it. I was told that DCI John Caldwell led that team.”

Det Ch Insp Caldwell is one of the PSNI’s best known detectives.

In 2023, he survived an armed attack by renegade republicans and was awarded the King’s Police Medal.

Ms McAllister said: “It was alleged to me that DCI John Caldwell himself offered the greatest resistance and behaved in a manner which, I was told, was unbecoming of a senior officer.”

“Why fight it? Why argue against it? What harm can it do to investigate it?”

In January 2021, a police team in Armagh took over the lead investigation into the Maydown team case.

Ms McAllister said: “Why was it necessary to have a large investigative team in another county in Northern Ireland to even begin the investigation into Katie’s murder?”

Another police whistleblower told the BBC: “Something had gone very wrong, so the big investigation team in Armagh had to take over Derry. That’s a fact. I don’t know what it was, but it stinks.”

In March 2021, Jonathan Creswell was charged with the rape and murder of Katie Simpson.

Creswell was a show jumper turned horse trainer who was in a relationship with one of Katie’s sisters.

His trial began earlier this year, on April 23.

It was heard that he had previously had “illicit” sexual relations with Katie and attacked her after finding out she was in a relationship with someone else.

He then attempted to cover up the incident in a “calculated and fraudulent” manner by claiming that her death was the result of suicide.

PSNI chief Jon Boutcher acknowledged in a statement that there had been shortcomings in the early stages of the investigation and said he was sorry for them.

He added that misconduct proceedings were underway against some officers following an investigation by the Police Ombudsman, but confirmed that Det Ch Insp Caldwell was not one of them.

Det Ch Insp Caldwell, the Chief Constable said, almost gave his life in the public service and he and his family had the full support of the PSNI during his recovery.

He added that the challenge of immediately establishing the circumstances of a death when such a devious and manipulative perpetrator as Creswell is involved should not be underestimated.

Jonathan Creswell met Katie and her family while working at horse stables near their home in Tynan, County Armagh.

He had two children with Katie’s eldest sister Christina.

It was a controlling relationship.

“He has isolated the family,” said Marie Brown, CEO of Foyle Women’s Aid and the Family Justice Centre.

“I believe coercive control is one of the most insidious forms of abuse because it gradually undermines the person, instills fear in them and paralyzes them to the point where they won’t tell anyone because they’re so afraid of the person.”

When she turned 18, Katie lived mostly with her sister and Creswell and was controlled by him.

On August 4, 2020, he claimed to be the Good Samaritan who found Katie injured after her suicide attempt.

Emergency services were called and Creswell put her in a car to take her to hospital.

BBC Spotlight has excerpts of the actual phone call between Creswell and the emergency call operator.

This includes, for example, Creswell pretending to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

“One, two, three, four,” he counted.

“I think I’m hurting her. One, two…”

During this time, he unlocked Katie’s phone and turned on airplane mode so it could not be tracked.

In the hospital, the 21-year-old was put on life support.

She never regained consciousness.

“Her eyes flickered a little,” recalled her mother, Noeleen Simpson.

“There’s just a lot of frustration coming from her, a terrible amount of anger coming from her.

“There were some spots. I remember asking the nurse, ‘What is that?’

“And the nurse said she didn’t know – but she looked worried.”

Katie’s bruising was a concern for nurses and she was also suffering from vaginal bleeding.

An autopsy revealed injuries to her limbs “that suggest she had been struck with a rod-like object.”

Ten years earlier, in 2010, he was sentenced to six months in prison.

The PSNI was accused of missing a number of warning signs in the 24 hours following the incident alone, but Creswell had misled them.

However, many suspected that he had harmed Katie.

His arrest in March 2021 came months after several people, including family members, a nurse and others, repeatedly contacted police in an attempt to have Creswell treated as a suspect in connection with the young showjumper’s death.

What Katie’s family and friends didn’t know until that point was the extent to which Creswell controlled her young life.

“I just can’t believe she smiled so much despite all the abuse she had to endure,” Noeleen said.

“I didn’t know what he was like. He was a very smart man.”

Creswell’s death meant he was not convicted of the rape and murder of Katie.

“I believe that Jonathan Creswell ultimately got away with murder by committing suicide,” Ms McAllister said.