Concerns over police capacity to tackle violence against women and girls

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable has said he has significant concerns about his force's capacity to deal with violence against women and girls.

Jon Boutcher made his remarks following the murder of Amy Doherty in Londonderry at the weekend.

She is one of 30 women to be brutally and violently killed in Northern Ireland since 2020.

The PSNI has a seven-year action plan aimed at ending violence against women and girls that launched in 2022.

Boutcher said he was committed to "prioritising" it, but warned that funding constraints within the service are making it difficult to tackle the issue.

On Wednesday, the chief constable appeared before Westminster's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into policing and security issues.

Boutcher said he believed there seems to be an "acceptance around misogyny" which he had not seen before.

He pointed to what he called the "abhorrent" rise of online influencers like Andrew Tate, and said society needs to "draw a line and say this is not acceptable".

Last week, the government's safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said Stormont was not lagging behind anywhere else in tackling the problem, as she updated MPs on efforts to address attitudes and behaviours online.

Boutcher said his concerns about adequate police resourcing stemmed from how officers managed the case of extreme online abuser Alexander McCartney.

In 2024, McCartney, from County Armagh, was given a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years in jail for the online sexual abuse of children and the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl.

Boutcher said the police had referred its response to the Police Ombudsman, who found that the force did not have "sufficient resources" to tackle those kinds of cases.

He said on the basis of the proposed draft multi-year budget for Northern Ireland, which has yet to be agreed by the executive, the PSNI would start with a gap of £65m next year, that would rise to £96m the year after that and to £118m by 2028-29.

Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck, who also appeared before MPs, expressed his own tributes to the family of Amy Doherty.

He said he had been the duty officer who received the call on Saturday morning.

"Your heart sinks when you're faced with another terrible situation... but within minutes officers were at the scene working hard to preserve life," said Beck.

He said the investigation was continuing at pace, but added: "The reality is that when I look at my detectives across the PSNI, we're just probably under 300 short of where we should be."

He said that undoubtedly had an impact in terms of the force's ability to investigate and safeguard in all areas of criminality, particularly more serious incidents.