Allegation of sexual assault in custody among concerns raised in NIPB’s latest custody visiting report

The concerns were among matters raised by detainees or custody visitors regarding facilities, conditions of detention, treatment and welfare of detainees in both custody suites and serious crime suites.

Published on Thursday (October 5) the official statistics publication details the number of visits made to custody suites in Northern Ireland by independent custody visitors (ICVs) during the period April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

In total, ICVs made 489 visits to custody suites during the 12 months.

There were three allegations of concern expressed to ICVs during the year. These allegations included concerns raised about excessive handling by the arresting officer, use of force in detention and allegation of sexual assault by a custody officer.

The most frequent welfare matter, which was raised on 34 occasions, was in relation to medical attention.

“This includes where detainees are waiting to see a healthcare professional or waiting for medication to arrive,” said the NIPB. “Custody visitors check requests have been made to custody staff but do not wait for medication or healthcare professionals to arrive.”

Issues of conditions of detentions raised by detainees or by ICVs were mainly in relation general maintenance and faulty equipment (32 out of 53 instances).

The remaining concerns raised related to cleanliness, heating/lighting and condition of medical rooms/health equipment.

Three safety/security hazards were reported during the year, and included unsecured chairs in interview rooms, and a monitor left on the floor.

There was one instance where the detainee was in possession of a lighter and had been smoking in the cell. This instance was followed up by custody staff in relation to detainee transport.

In total, 1,136 detainees were selected for interview and 549 were visited by ICVs, while 18 detainees refused to be interviewed.

The most frequent reason for detainees not being visited was that they were asleep (60.2 per cent) or being interviewed (15.3 per cent).

In addition, 960 custody records were checked during the year.

As at March 31 this year there were 29 ICVs, who are volunteers from across the community and are independent of the police and criminal justice system.

They make unannounced visits to police custody suites where they inspect and report on the rights, health and wellbeing and conditions of people being detained in custody, either by conversing with them and/or checking custody records.

The Northern Ireland Independent Custody Visiting Scheme was first established in 1991 by the Police Authority.

The importance of an independent scheme that ensured the rights, health and wellbeing of the detainee and the facilities and conditions of detention was also recognised in 1999 by the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (the Patten Report).

The scheme was subsequently given a statutory footing by virtue of section 73 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, which requires the NIPB to make, and keep under review, arrangements for designated places of detention to be visited by custody visitors.