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Amy Doherty was killed in Derry at the weekend (family handout\/PA)<\/p>\nPSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has said he has \u201csignificant concerns\u201d over the force\u2019s capacity to deal with violence against women and girls.<\/p>\n
Boutcher told MPs there is currently an acceptance in society of misogyny which he has never seen before.<\/p>\n
He was asked during an appearance before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee about concerns around the levels of violence against women in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
At the weekend, police launched a murder investigation after young mother Amy Doherty was killed in Derry. A man has been arrested.<\/p>\n
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On Monday, Stephen McCullagh was convicted at Belfast Crown Court of the murder of his pregnant partner Natalie McNally in Lurgan in December 2022.<\/p>\n
Committee chairwoman Tonia Antoniazzi said 30 women had died violently in Northern Ireland since 2020.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cStatistics show it is worse in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you deal with the fact that it is worse in Northern Ireland and how does your force address male violence against women and girls?\u201d<\/p>\n
Boutcher passed on his condolences to the family of Doherty. He said he had also met with the family of Chloe Mitchell, who was killed in Co Antrim in 2023, and had spoken this week to the lead investigating officer in the McNally case.<\/p>\n
Amy Doherty was killed in Derry at the weekend (family handout\/PA)<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI want to assure this committee we are taking a number of steps, that violence against women and girls is a significant priority for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want to make one point though. Often it is mentioned that violence against women and girls is more significant in Northern Ireland than elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that is possibly because in 2019 the BBC published an article using figures from Eurostat, highlighting the number of homicides in Northern Ireland as being comparable to Romania and at the very high end of femicides in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data given was 0.43% per 100,000 population, which is the same as Romania.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt quoted eight murders and the data was a single year, 2017.<\/p>\n
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PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher gave evidence to MPs on Wednesday (PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data was wrong. There were four murders that year, three against women and one domestic murder against a male.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rate for Northern Ireland on that data would have put us just below England and Wales and just above Switzerland, in the middle of the table of European countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boutcher said he had looked at the data from 2012 to 2023, \u201cwhich puts us right in the middle of the data set for Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Chief Constable then referred to the death of showjumper Katie Simpson in 2020.<\/p>\n
Police originally thought she had died by suicide, but the following year Jonathan Creswell, the partner of Simpson\u2019s sister, was arrested on suspicion of murder.<\/p>\n
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Katie Simpson died in 2020 and her sister\u2019s partner was later arrested (family handout\/PA)<\/p>\n
The trial of Creswell, 36, for murder ended in April last year after his sudden death.<\/p>\n
Boutcher said: \u201cI don\u2019t know if this is Northern Ireland specific or I am of a generation now because of what is happening online or because of the vile nature of things like Andrew Tate and what he seems to do with young men and boys and trying to groom them as to how they behave, which is abhorrent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there seems to be an acceptance around misogyny the like of which I have not seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got to draw a line and say this is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said lots of work is done by the PSNI, including commissioning review of how the force is dealing with incidents of violence against women.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe have done a cultural audit in the last 12 months specifically looking at behaviours within the organisation, focusing on ensuring that we are doing everything we possibly can to deal with any abhorrent behaviours, whether that is misogyny or any sort of hatefulness within the organisation towards colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
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SDLP leader Claire Hanna said people did not want to quibble over figures with regards to violence against women (Mark Marlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
SDLP leader Claire Hanna said she did not think people \u201cwanted to quibble on numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI think Ellie Flanagan and Amy Doherty became the 29th\u00a0and 20th\u00a0women killed since 2020 and comparable figures for England show we do have a femicide rate that is almost twice of the island next door and certainly of the south.\u201d<\/p>\n
She asked if the PSNI had the proper resources to bring perpetrators to justice.<\/p>\n
Boutcher said: \u201cFor me violence against women and girls is one of my biggest concerns with regards to my role as the chief constable of Northern Ireland, that is why we are prioritising.<\/p>\n
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