Father says North Wales Police ‘not fit for purpose’ after repeated failures in investigation into his daughter’s disappearance

A father whose daughter went missing three years ago fears it will take another person to go missing before North Wales Police learn lessons.

Gerry Maguire, who’s daughter Catrin went missing from Holyhead on the 15 of November 2021 described engaging with the police on his daughter’s disappearance as like “trying to get blood out of a stone, they were very difficult to deal with.”

Gerry Maguire spoke to S4C’s current affairs programme, Y Byd ar Bedwar, ahead of the 3 year anniversary of his daughter’s disappearance next month.

Second apology

North Wales Police issued a second apology to the family on the programme, and said they are looking at re-launching the appeal into Catrin’s case.

On Monday 15 November 2021, Catrin travelled from her home in Bangor to Holyhead by train.

She was seen on a number of CCTV cameras in Holyhead town centre, before being seen for the final time in South Stack that afternoon. She was wearing a black coat and was carrying a light coloured bag on the day she disappeared.

Catrin was reported missing the following day, after she missed a routine phone call with her family.

Three years on Gerry said, “The family is still in groundhog day… We haven’t moved on because she’s basically just disappeared without a trace.”

There was a multi-agency effort to try and find Catrin, including search and rescue teams, police coastguards and volunteers. However Gerry wasn’t happy with the efforts of the police in the days that followed.

“We had no point of contact, what they wanted us to do was just phone 101 for updates…”

The family spoke to around 14 different police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) during the investigation, which the family said added to their distress.

“I kept having to explain the same thing to different officers every time, because there was no communication between officers.”

Suicide

On the fourth day of Catrin’s disappearance, Gerry said he received a phone call from an officer he had never met before to explain the police’s hypothesis was that Catrin is deceased and had died by suicide.

On another occasion, he said an officer came to the house and described to the family what happens to a body that has drowned, causing unnecessary upset to the family.

Gerry said incidents like these have added to the pain of the family.

“That emotionally scarred us for life, hearing that. There was no need for it… I remember it upsetting me and making my wife cry.”

North Wales Police also failed to respond properly to a report of a possible sighting of Catrin in Holyhead. A witness who reported the sighting was incorrectly told there were no missing females in the area.

When she challenged the call handler she was then mistakenly told that the missing female she was referring to was in Ireland. After the call, the witness informed Catrin’s father.

Police later confirmed the call handler provided incorrect information and issued an apology to the family.

Investigation

In February 2022, Gerry requested the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigate North Wales Police’s handling of his daughter’s case and the way they treated the family, but the complaint was referred back to North Wales Police to be investigated internally.

Last summer, North Wales Police published the report. There were seven allegations put forward by the family, in six of those the service provided by North Wales Police was deemed ‘not acceptable’. Three complaints involved officers showing an unprofessional attitude and disrespect towards the family.

Three years before Catrin disappeared, a man named Tony Haigh went missing from Holyhead. He was 49 years old at the time and vanished on February 23, 2018. Within the programme being broadcast Monday night at 20:00 on S4C Tony’s son, Zack Haigh and Gerry Maguire meet for the first time.

Y Byd ar Bedwar have reviewed both investigation reports from North Wales Police and identified similar failures in their handling of Tony Haigh’s 2018 disappearance and Catrin’s 2021 disappearance.

Tony’s son Zack said, “Hollyhead is a small town and how can this happen twice in the space of a few years… how can they mess up that bad?”

“It’s quite shocking because it’s a few years later and very similar findings. I just don’t understand how that can happen after [all the] complaints and reports… how can that happen?”

Following a review of Tony’s case by North Wales Police, the force concluded that out of 5 allegations put forward by the family, there were 2 allegations where the service provided by North Wales Police was deemed not acceptable. This included a failure to keep the family updated and no consistent reporting officer.

Zack said, “there was no contact with the family, they weren’t keeping us up to date… [they were] taking ages to respond…”

“It took them a year and three months to get us a liaison officer. It’s just out of order… It’s distressing. Why did it take a year and three months to get a point of contact in such an important investigation?”

“They’ve let me down, they’ve let my family down, and they’ve let my father down.”

“They’re not doing their job properly.”

Distress

Responding to Zack, Gerry said “In my opinion, lessons haven’t been learnt… and now our family is in distress like Tony’s family was. Why haven’t they learnt their lessons?”

Assistant Chief Constable for North Wales Police, Gareth Evans told Y Byd ar Bedwar that he recognises how difficult it is for families with people who go missing.

“When somebody goes missing it’s like being in a never ending nightmare isn’t it, and we recognise that and the importance for us is that we communicate well with the families.”

“Within the past year specifically we’ve really improved our policy around this, so we do have a single point of contact for families and they know who’s going to keep them updated about their cases. [On] day 1 it would be clear who’s going to contact them and keep them updated in relation to the investigation.”

“We have made a lot of changes in how we deal with cases of people who go missing, a lot of training has come in, and the policy has changed regarding a point of constant contact with the police.”

“Specifically in Catrin’s case we have apologised to the family and I’ll repeat that apology here, we are sorry for the service that they received.”

“We are looking to re-launch the appeal [into Catrin’s case] to try to get more information out of the community.”

“I am happy to meet with Tony Haigh’s family and discuss their concerns with them.”

You can watch the full programme on Y Byd ar Bedwar on S4C at 20:00 on Monday 21st of October. The programme has English subtitles.