Debate contribution: Policing Resources
Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on .
- MLA
- Mr Jon Burrows
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 25 November 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Opposition Business
- Heading
- Policing Resources
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5259270
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Alexander McCartney was an evil and depraved man. He should never walk the streets again. I know a little bit about his offending. We talk about sextortion and blackmail. This was a man who got children to do things to themselves for his sexual gratification, and he tortured them and tortured them to keep doing those things, and sometimes that involved abusing their siblings. That is how evil this man was. He caused the death of Cimarron Thomas and her father, Benjamin. However, the scale of harm that he caused is unquantifiable. The reality is that, because of resources, the police in such cases get to a point where they identify enough victims to get a case across the line; someone makes a policy decision that they are going to have to stop; they go into safeguarding mode and try to identify vulnerable victims just so they can safeguard them; and then they come to the decision that there are thousands of victims whom they will not even try to trace, because policing has to go on and the suspect is in prison. Therefore, we do not know the scale of harm that that man caused. I pay tribute to the child abuse investigation unit that tracked him down. It was a global case; it was a threat on an industrial scale. I know one of the investigators. He does not mind me mentioning his name — Detective Sergeant Neil McGuinness — and I know the impact that it had on him. At least five officers have been medically retired as a result of the investigation — two from cybercrime and three from the child abuse investigation unit. They saw image after image and video after video of things that you never want to have in your brain. However, one of the problems is that this team is so small and under-resourced that the officers do not get sufficient breaks and cannot take a gap between viewing images. They are against a ticking clock. None of those officers on that investigation got to see the occupational health and well-being (OHW) department, even though there should be routine screening of the police officers who are watching that level of images. Those officers did not get to see the OHW at all. Therefore, resources are at the heart of the failure to catch McCartney, but they are also at the heart of our Police Service, which is suffering attrition rates of 300 officers a year. That is a problem. We talk about recruitment, but you can keep recruiting until you get to the stage where you do not get to retain your supporting officers. We also talk about prioritisation. Our police officers work in a job in which every decision has more consequences than you can possibly imagine. There could be three phones: if you do not examine one of them first, millions of pounds worth of drugs will flood our community; if you do not examine another, a police officer will be shot in the next six weeks; and if you do not examine the other, a child predator will continue to offend. That is the reality of policing. That is why we need resourcing, and it is why we should support our Police Service and remember that there are thousands more victims out there and that we need to get dealing with them and support our police.
573 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.