Glenn Quinn, who was 47, was killed in his Carrickfergus home in early January 2020
Police failed to properly deal with intelligence that indicated a murdered Carrickfergus man was under threat, an ombudsman has found.
Glenn Quinn, 47, was found beaten to death in his house in January 2020.
His family believe individuals linked to a loyalist paramilitary group – the South East Antrim Ulster Defence Association (UDA) – were responsible.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has apologised to Mr Quinn’s family.
The Police Ombudsman, Marie Anderson, said the the PSNI received intelligence from an anonymous source on 1 January 2020, three days before Mr Quinn was found dead.
The intelligence referenced Mr Quinn’s name and home address, and he was to be shot dead at his home.
However, the ombudsman said Mr Quinn was not informed as he was not associated on police systems with the address provided in the intelligence.
“This led to the police failing to identify him as a target,” she said.
“However, if police had visited the address it is likely that they would have been able to confirm that he lived there, which would have verified the credibility of the threat.”
Image source, Pacemaker
Police cordoned off the murder scene in Ashleigh Park in January 2020
She added: “This would have led to Mr Quinn being given a threat warning notice which would have provided him with an opportunity to consider police advice in respect of appropriate precautionary measures.”
Two duty inspectors who each assessed the intelligence said that it did not constitute “a real and immediate threat to life”, the ombudsman added.
Mrs Anderson recommended that one of the inspectors should be disciplined for this failing, and that she would have recommended the same for the second inspector but the officer retired before her investigation ended.
The ombudsman said the PSNI had decided the serving officer had no case to answer for misconduct and that they should receive additional training instead, a move that Mrs Anderson said was extremely disappointing.
PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Chris Todd apologised to Mr Qunn’s family and said the police accepted Mrs Anderson’s findings.
He said police has “now implemented recommendations to ensure that incidents of a similar nature do not occur again”.
“Policing is a human endeavour and sometimes mistakes are made. The scale and complexity of this work is exceptionally challenging. Intelligence is not an exact science and police often have to work off a partial picture,” he added.
