It comes in the wake of a report highlighting the number of vulnerable women who were the alleged victims of police officers abusing their positions for sexual purposes
The Police Ombudsman has revealed the number of open investigations into cases involving members of the PSNI abusing their positions for sexual purposes.
The watchdog revealed the 34 investigations in a meeting with the Policing Board’s Performance Committee where it discussed a report that was released earlier this year that highlighted 36 vulnerable women who were the alleged victims of police officers abusing their postions from 2018 to 2024.
The current investigations involve some of those cases along with others that have been reported to the Ombudsman since January 1, 2025.
At the meeting Chief Executive Hugh Hume and other Police Ombudsman staff presented the findings of the report, answered questions and discussed the potential next steps to “support a system-wide response”.
Following the release of the Ombudsman report in March, Police Ombudsman Chief Executive Hugh Hume said police predatory behaviour is one of the most serious forms of corruption in policing. Mr Hume confirmed that the Police Ombudsman is currently investigating allegations of police predatory behaviour which involve a total of 39 victims and 20 serving and two former police officers.
“We are seeing a rise in these cases and the majority of those are coming from the PSNI itself. This is welcome and shows a very clear willingness at the most senior level to identify and eradicate this kind of behaviour.
“I hope this analysis will support the PSNI further in recognising and addressing predatory police behaviour, as well as strengthening their systems so the opportunity for this type of corruption is reduced.
“I also believe our work to date is a tangible demonstration that the Police Ombudsman is supporting the Northern Ireland Executive’s strategy to end violence against women and girls. We will continue to contribute to that aim as we test these emerging findings against the outcomes of more investigations as they conclude.
“Although this is a small number of officers relative to the size of the PSNI, the abuse of their position for their own sexual gain inflicts significant and long-lasting damage on their victims.“Such is the power imbalance that many women do not report the offending directly for fear of reprisal and others can be so vulnerable that they do not recognise that the officer is abusing them and instead see him as a ‘knight in shining armour’ figure. Others do not see themselves as victims at all.“We hope one of the outcomes of publishing this report will be that any woman who has had a similar experience with a police officer will feel reassured that we take this kind of offending seriously and know that if this has happened to them, we will listen and we will investigate.”
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