Police chief to meet family of boy found in river
Rodney Edwards • Published 27 Sep 2012 13:00
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THE Chief Superintendent of Fermanagh Police is to meet the family of Daniel Mohan, the 16-year-old whose body officers failed to locate for five days after he was reported missing "to discuss any issues they may have".
Nine police officers here, including Duty Inspectors and Sergeants, "failed in their duty" to take adequate steps when investigating Daniel's disappearance. All nine, eight of supervisory rank, were disciplined by the Police Ombudsman after they failed to correctly risk assess, record, enquire and review police actions in an effort to locate missing Daniel.
A Coroner's court held in Enniskillen recently found that he died due to freshwater drowning. A PSNI Detective Sergeant told the court that police manpower was the reason why it took two days after a trained police dog "picked up something" for police action to be taken to find his body.
Daniel's mother Tracey McMulkin will use the meeting as an opportunity to ask Chief Superintendent Pauline Shields a number of vital questions.
"There are many things I want to ask the police; I want to know why they left Danny in the water for so long and why they weren't properly searching for him when I told them he was missing," she said.
Ms McMulkin will also ask the senior officer why her son's jumper was destroyed by police.
"When the police brought all of Danny's belongings back they gave me everything apart from his wee jumper. They told me that had disposed of it, they had incinerated it; I want to know why they burnt my son's jumper."
The meeting will be the family's chance to make their views known, though it is not known if the police will use it as their chance to apologise for their failures in finding missing Daniel, something they have not yet done.
Chief Superintendent Pauline Shields has refused to be drawn on whether or not the police will offer an apology to the family.
In a statement, she told this newspaper: "Following the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Daniel Mohan, we have been in contact with his family and offered an opportunity to discuss any issues they may have. Until that is completed, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further."
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 27 Sep 12
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