Police Ombudsman to investigate PSNI on Fintona death response

THE PSNI has referred itself to the Police Ombudsman over concerns expressed by the family of the late Matthew McCallan into the initial stages of their investigation in relation to his death.

Earlier today, the 15 year-old’s mother, Frances, expressed her anger at the probe.

“What’s on my mind…my son is dead because the police service of Northern Ireland did nothing to help in the first ten to twelve hours of going missing,” she said.

“I told them it was totally out of character, yet hours went by and no one listened and my friends and the Fintona community gathered the necessary cctv evidence.”

Now, in a statement issued this afternoon, the PSNI have said that two senior officers will meet with the McCallan family over the matter.

“We are aware of the family’s concerns regarding the initial response in the search for Matthew and the family have agreed to meet two senior officers to discuss,” said Detective Superintendent Gareth Talbot.

“Due to the family’s concerns we have decided at an early stage to make a notification to the Office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland for their assessment.

“Detectives will continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding Matthew’s death, which is being treated as unexplained and a post mortem is due to take place today.

“We are keeping an open mind at this stage and would appeal for anyone with information to come forward.

“Enquiries have now ruled out speculation which circulated on social media that Matthew was seen getting into a silver car. We have now identified and spoken to the occupants of the car and eliminated them from our enquiries.”

The teenager’s body was recovered from a ditch in a laneway along the Tattyreagh Road on Monday afternoon shortly before 12 noon. He had been missing from the early hours of Sunday morning.