Detective Chief Superintendent John Caldwell (Brian Lawless/PA) Senior PSNI detective John Caldwell is suing the BBC and an MLA over comments made during a documentary about the investigation into the death of showjumper Katie Simpson. The detective chief inspector, who suffered life-changing injuries in a dissident republican murder bid in 2023, is taking legal action over comments made by Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister on the BBC programme Spotlight. The programme examined the police investigation into Ms Simpson’s death and whether some officers were initially reluctant to investigate the showjumper’s death as a potential crime.
During the documentary, Ms McAllister made comments about Mr Caldwell as head of a team within the PSNI. Chief constable Jon Boutcher told the Policing Board earlier this month that the PSNI got things wrong in the initial stages of their inquiry, but robustly defended Mr Caldwell and said he was not facing any misconduct proceedings. PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher speaking during a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast on August 1 (Liam McBurney/PA) Ms Simpson, 21, who was from Tynan, Co Armagh, died in hospital almost a week after an incident in Gortnessy Meadows, Lettershandoney on August 3 2020.
Her murder was originally thought by police to have been a suicide. It was not until the following year that Jonathan Creswell, the partner of Ms Simpson’s sister, was arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial of Creswell, 3.