A COMPLAINT that police failed to properly investigate an online threat to sexually attack a journalist's baby son has been upheld by the Police Ombudsman.
Patricia Devlin, a reporter for the Sunday World, took a case to the ombudsman last year.
The threat was made in a direct message to Ms Devlin's Facebook account, signed in the name of neo-Nazi group Combat 18.
A Police Ombudsman review of the PSNI's investigation found that police had missed "evidential opportunities".
It found the officer in question had "failed to take appropriate measures to secure the arrest of the suspect, who lived in another part of the UK".
It dismissed however a second claim that police had failed to "protect (her) as a victim of the threatening messages" adding the case had now been closed.
Ms Devlin said she hoped that the findings will have an impact on other people who report threats made on social media to police.
A PSNI spokesperson said: "A complaint was made to the Office of the Police Ombudsman, the case was upheld and the matter was dealt with under performance measures."
