Police have apologised after no officers were available to respond to a call from a man who was being threatened by phone and WhatsApp message. Andrew McQuillan, the son of a retired senior police officer, told the BBC's Nolan Show a man threatened to kill him on Tuesday evening. He phoned police but said officers did not arrive until Wednesday morning.
Supt Kelly Moore said she had apologised directly to Mr McQuillan. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) district commander for Lisburn and Castlereagh added that the lack of available officers was due to 'the high volume and nature of ongoing incidents at that time' in the area. She said she understood the distress it had caused and confirmed her officers had spoken to him at 09:00 BST on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Nolan Show, Mr McQuillan said he received a message at his office from a caller who said he would 'chop him up'. He then received multiple calls from a withheld number. When he answered, the caller said they had a gun and were on their way to kill him, also making threats against his family and saying he would see him in five minutes.
'I was panicking...I feared for my life,' Mr McQuillan said. He criticised the PSNI response and said while he did not expect any special treatment because of his father's former role, he would have expected officers to attend such a call urgently. Police have launched an investigation into the threats and are treating them as a sectarian hate crime.
