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Although Monday, August 3, 2020 should have been just another summer day for 21-year-old Katie Simpson, it ended in a tragic nightmare. Katie had been a showjumper, riding horses through obstacles with the goal of completing the course in the fastest time without getting any faults.
She was a driven young girl who was deeply loved by her community. On that Monday, a man named Jonathan Cresswell called emergency services, saying that he found his sister-in-law Katie hanging in the home he shared with her as well as others in Gortnessy Meadows in northern Ireland. What followed became a nightmare that would unravel everything her family believed about love, trust & the institutions sworn to protect.
Before her tragic death, Katie Simpson had three main loves in her life, her family, her friends & her horses. She was a fun-loving, fearless, lively, happy girl who could normally be found with a big smile on her face, surrounded by her large circle of friends. She was someone who boosted your mood & made you feel better by just being in her presence.
Horses had always been a passion of Katie’s & at a young age, she & her sister Rebecca got ponies. As she continued to become more & more interested in horses, they became more of a career than a hobby. She was a fearless rider who always wanted to get to the jump before everyone else.
Had her life not ended in tragedy, her loved ones have no doubt that she would have risen to the top, but she was sadly never given that chance.
On Monday, August 3, 2020, emergency services received a call from a small home in Derry. 32-year-old Jonathan Creswell told the dispatcher that his sister-in-law, Katie, had committed suicide, saying that he found her unresponsive, hanging in a stairwell.
However, rather than waiting for emergency responders to arrive as instructed, he placed Katie into her car & began driving to Altnagelvin Hospital until he was instructed to pull over & begin CPR until paramedics could arrive & take over.
She was then transferred to an ambulance & taken to the hospital while Jonathan spoke with two police officers, maintaining that Katie had tried to take her own life.
Once at the hospital, she was placed on a ventilator & very quickly, the medical team noticed a large number of unexplained injuries to her body that included bruising that was consistent with blunt force trauma. This was something the staff were outspoken about. Even more concerning, she had vaginal bleeding that was suggestive of a sexual assault.
However, Jonathan claimed that she had sustained these injuries from a horse riding accident earlier that week. But this obviously wouldn’t have explained why there were signs of a sexual assault.
While Katie lay dying in her hospital bed, Jonathan was able to get her bank account details, PINs & passwords & withdrawal substantial amounts of cash. CCTV showed money being taken out of her account from an ATM inside the hospital. Although someone else approached the machine & withdrew the money, they immediately handed it over to Jonathan.
Tragically, Katie died in the hospital six days later on August 9, 2020 without ever regaining consciousness.
From the start, it appeared to Katie’s family that officers were readily accepting the suicide theory as fact rather than carrying out an investigation. They didn’t secure the crime scene or collect key evidence that could support a prosecution. Despite the injuries that medical staff reported to investigators, no photos were taken prior to her death despite the fact that her prognosis was grim. Postmortem photos were taken, but by this time, some of the injuries had subsided.
When Katie’s car was seized on August 3 for a forensic examination, only a basic search of the car was conducted. This recovered two cell phones which were old devices that belonged to Katie. Devices found in the house weren’t seized or considered & no action was taken to find her missing cell phone.
Even more alarming, the blatant injuries to Katie’s body were completely ignored. This included the pathologist’s report which found no clear ligature marks around her neck despite the fact that Jonathan claimed to have found her hanging. The vaginal bleeding couldn’t be explained by anything other than a sexual assault.
There was also never any investigation to establish Katie’s alleged fall from a horse while the bruises to her body appeared to have been caused by her being struck with a rod-type object.
Suspicious activity seen at the house that Jonathan shared with Katie was also not investigated. CCTV footage showed Jonathan leaving & returning on August 3 as well as a woman taking a bag from the house & putting it into a second car.
On top of all of the glaring evidence that pointed away from a suicide & suggested a violent beating before she died, Jonathan Creswell also had a very long history of violence against women. Ten years earlier in 2010, he was jailed for six months after viciously beating his ex-girlfriend, Abi Lyle.
According to Abi, she had just turned 23 when she began a relationship with Jonathan, a time when she was beginning her career with horses. He initially came across as a confident, charming yet cocky guy who could be very thoughtful, sweet & kind.
However, everything fell apart in February 2009 when they got into an argument before she went out with friends. He later sent a text of apology & asked if he could come pick her up. When she got into the car, he suddenly grabbed her by the back of her head & began slamming her head against the window & dashboard. As she curled up in shock, he continued to hit her over & over.
For a while, Abi believed Jonathan when he said he was sorry & he would never do it again so she stayed with him for nine months between 2008-2009. She was attacked as often as every two weeks, but she blamed herself for his violent outbursts. On another occasion, he hit & choked her so violently that she was sure that she was going to die. During another incident, when she came home, she immediately smelled bleach from downstairs & he threatened to place her in a bathtub filled with bleach. Each time he beat her, he would threaten to kill her.
Aware of the abuse his daughter was dealing with, Abi’s father contacted a domestic violence officer, someone she now describes as her saving grace. Understanding what she was going through, the woman gave her the courage to not only leave Jonathan, but to also file charges against him.
As the case moved through the court system, this was when Jonathan began his relationship with Christina Simpson, Katie’s sister.
Jonathan was also facing several allegations of sexual abuse, extortion & controlling behaviors from other women around the time of Katie’s death.
Despite others coming forward to raise concern regarding Jonathan potentially being involved in Katie’s death, the police seemed to accept his story as fact as Katie’s death was quickly ruled a suicide & the case was closed.
Although he was exceptionally controlling & calculating, to some, he hid this darkness behind an affable, friendly smile. On first meeting him, many saw what they believed to be a very nice person while those who knew him well within the horse community were aware of his true nature.
One woman, Kerry McKenzie, who had shared stables with both Jonathan & Katie, spoke out about Jonathan’s out-of-control outbursts as she described him as an absolute monster who was like the devil.
Another woman & her husband worked with Jonathan at stables in County Antrim from September 2015, but were forced to leave within months due to his shocking behavior. The woman, who is going by the alias, Sarah, indicated that he was egotistical & arrogant yet everyone treated him like a king. Despite the fact that he made a highly threatening statement, voicing that the only mistake he made with Abi was that he hadn’t killed her, no one seemed to bat an eye. When Sarah made a complaint after Jonathan exposed himself to her & made a sexual suggestion, she was shocked when the stable owner did nothing about it.
Even more outrageous, rather than taking her side, Sarah realized that those associated with the stables had turned against her & she & her partner were ostracized until they felt they had no choice but to leave.
In January 2016 the couple decided to go to police since they knew just how dangerous he was, but the case was closed in 2017 without any action. It wasn’t until after Katie’s death when Sarah was contacted & told she might need to make a statement.
Not only was Jonathan facing a slew of allegations of sexual abuse & violence against him by nearly 12 women, but he had also been known to extort money from the women he was involved with. Katie had taken out a £10,000 loan & given the money to him.
In the two years after his release from prison following his attack on Abi Lyle, Kerry, who shared stables with them, witnessed his screaming outbursts at Katie, who had only been a teenager at the time. During one occasion, things got so heated between the two that Katie had to defend herself with a pitchfork. After her death, Kerry was very outspoken to authorities about her suspicions that Jonathan was involved in her death.
During Katie’s funeral, it was clear that Jonathan was trying to be the center of attention & shockingly, a lot of sympathy was directed toward him. Not only was he among those who carried her coffin, but he had also been at her bedside in the hospital when she took her final breaths.
However, journalist Tanya Fowles, who covered the case against Jonathan in 2011, had known Katie since she was a child & repeatedly tried to warn police about him beginning on August 4, days before Katie died. Immediately, when she heard that he had been the one to find her body, alarm bells began to sound. When she learned the details of her injuries, the alarm bells began to blare because she knew he had a history of strangling women. Even after the case was closed, she continued to press for answers, taking her concerns to the press office & then to the Police Ombudsman.
Sadly, when Tanya began contacting the police with her concerns, she was treated as nothing more than a nuisance. It wasn’t until she reached detective sergeant James Brannigan that her concerns were taken seriously. Brannigan himself was met with significant resistance from his colleagues & risked his own career while trying to pursue justice.
In the months that followed her death, her family also told investigators that Katie had been subjected to controlling & coercive behavior by Jonathan & that she had not fallen from a horse recently.
When the case was finally reopened, Jonathan was identified as a suspect in January 2021 after a reassessment was done. He was then arrested in March 2021, but despite his history of abuse & the serious allegations against him, he was released on bail on June 30, 2021.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) referred itself to the Ombudsman, which investigated the original PSNI inquiry. In a 1,400 page report that has not been made public, officers were accused of committing misconduct. Six officers subsequently faced disciplinary action, but two had retired & in one case, no misconduct was proven, while another officer received a written warning & another received action aimed at improving performance while the last received management advice.
Katie’s case highlighted the importance of safeguarding young women in the equestrian world. According to Katie’s sister Rebecca, the industry is a bit like a cult. When you’re in it, you’re in it.. The things that happened to Katie & so many others do get overlooked, it’s like it’s normal in that world & it shouldn’t be.
Following a criminal interview after his arrest in 2021, Jonathan revealed that Katie’s cell phone could be found hidden in a field.
Detective Brannigan told a court that in addition to controlling Katie, he also controlled other women within the equestrian world as well. He was a jockey-turned-horse trainer who was featured in Channel 4’s TV advertisements for the Grand National in 2013.
After he was charged with Katie’s murder, others began coming forward & with this, he was also facing charges that included rape, assault, indecent assault & false imprisonment. Other attacks mentioned in court included an incident when he forced a woman’s head against a car window & slapped her in the face. Another involved him dragging a woman across a stable yard by the hair.
As far back as 2004, he was known to meet women while working as a jockey at stables in Tynan, some of whom were said to be very young. This included a complaint that involved a 12-year-old who he began to separate from others. He began touching her without consent until she claims that he eventually raped her in a stable.
Police were sure that there were other victims. His pattern was normally the same in each case when he would control a woman, isolate them from others & then begin to physically, emotionally & sexually abuse them.
Despite the fact that he went to prison for six months after attacking Abi Lyle, on his release, other women in the equestrian world threw him a welcome home party while Abi was ostracized.
The community’s response appeared to be a combination of denial as well as contempt for anyone accusing such a charming man of being responsible for something so horrific. It was clear that so many people were somehow under Jonathan’s charming spell.
Since 9 or 10-years old, Katie had been controlled by Jonathan as was her sister, Christina, who was Jonathan’s partner. At some point Katie moved in with Christina & Jonathan to Gortnessy Meadows in Lettershandoney , not far from Derry. At the time of her death in August 2020, she was living with Christina, Jonathan, their two children as well as another woman, Rose De Montmorency-Wright.
The trial began on April 23, 2024 while the jury consisted of eight women & four men in what was expected to last between four & six weeks. Sam Magee KC (King’s Council) for the prosecution, outlined the events that led up to Katie’s murder.
In the weeks before her death, Katie had begun dating a fellow showjumper, Shane McCloskey, something that made Jonathan extremely jealous to the extent that, according to Magee, he had strangled & killed Katie.
Prior to her death, Katie spent the night with Shane at her mother’s home in Middletown & they each left early the following morning on Sunday, August 2, 2020. Shortly after 6 am, Jonathan called Katie on Snapchat & at 6:15 am he messaged, You reply to my Snap right f***ing now. By 8:30 am, he messaged her asking when she had seen Shane & as the day continued on, it was clear that she was terrified that he would find out that they had spent the night together. She sent a text to Shane, writing that he would go crazy if he found out.
Katie then headed to Lurgan for a showjump competition where Jonathan planned to be. It’s believed that a woman named Easkey Houston saw Shane driving home early in the morning after he spent the night with Katie & mentioned it to a mutual acquaintance of Katie & Jonathan’s. This woman then contacted Jonathan to let him know & his rage grew from here.
It’s believed that as Katie arrived for the event on Sunday, Jonathan confronted her & took her phone. Shane made attempts to contact her throughout the day, but he was unable to reach her. Phone evidence placed Jonathan with Katie after the event, the evening before she was found unresponsive. At his insistence, she traveled with him in the back of a horse trailer until they dropped the horses off & got into Jonathan’s car together, returning to their house near Derry just before midnight. What went on while they rode together in the back of the trailer is unknown.
In the meantime, Shane was growing upset by Katie’s lack of response, wondering if he’d done something wrong. He sent a text saying that he hadn’t driven for an hour & a half the night before just to have sex with her. He explained that he wanted the relationship to work. This was the moment that Jonathan realized that Katie’s relationship with Shane was sexual.
Although she normally deleted her texts so that he was unable to see them, prosecutor Magee indicated that after Jonathan became aware of Katie’s sexual relationship with Shane, her fate was sealed.
After his arrest, Jonathan told police that he & Katie had sex on the hood of his car before they came back home after the horse show, arriving at around 12:25 am, now in the early morning hours of Monday, August 3. Once inside, they found Christina & Rose still up, chatting.
Rose indicated that when Katie came inside, she said that she had been trampled by a horse but she wasn’t upset or injured. Jonathan said that he went to bed with Katie & they had sex again. Although Rose normally shared a bedroom with Katie, she slept on the couch that night. What happened between that point & 4:30 am is unknown, a time which Christina claimed she saw Jonathan asleep in bed with her sister.
When Christina left at 6:39 am, she said Jonathan was asleep in the spare room. Rose claimed that when she woke up, she brought tea into Katie at 7 am & Katie told her she wasn’t going to work. However, Christina later claimed that Jonathan only instructed Rose to say that she had spoken to Katie.
At 7:07 am Rose left in Jonathan’s car opting not to take Katie’s since she said that it was unreliable despite the fact that she’d driven it the day before.
Jonathan spent much of that night in Katie’s bed, attacking, raping & strangling her, leaving her dying when he left the house at about 8 am to take his children to his mother’s house in Greysteel. While he drove back home, he spoke on the phone with a former girlfriend, Hayley Robb, who was driving to meet him at the house. She later indicated that it seemed strange that he wanted to continue talking on the phone despite the fact that they would be seeing each other shortly.
The prosecution believes he deliberately kept her on the phone to establish an alibi & to feign shock at finding Katie as he entered the home. As he came inside, Hayley could hear him shout, Katie’s hanging. Call an ambulance.
The court was able to hear her 999 call as she gave the dispatcher Jonathan’s address & phone number. The dispatcher then made multiple attempts to call him & by this time, he claimed to have cut Katie down, dragged her to the car, placed her in the passenger seat & set out for Altnagelvin Hospital.
Despite the fact that emergency services instructed him to wait for an ambulance to arrive, he began driving until the dispatcher instructed him to pull over & start CPR. This was such unusual behavior that a hospital consultant later admitted they had never encountered something like this before.
The jury could hear Jonathan counting out CPR compressions, frantically saying, Nothing’s happening. I think I’m hurting her. Although he was on the phone with the dispatcher, he claimed to be using both hands. In the meantime, he had Katie’s cell phone which had been switched to airplane mode.
As paramedics arrived & took over chest compressions, they were able to regain Katie’s pulse & stablize her. They could see that she was wearing underwear on her lower body & what they would later learn was the showjumping shirt she’d worn the previous day on her upper body.
Although he was instructed to follow the ambulance to the hospital, he instead turned his car around, arriving at his house at the same time as Hayley Robb. Although she had not been initially forthcoming with information when investigators first spoke with her, she later admitted that once inside Jonathan said he was going to take a cold shower.
Hayley later admitted that he hadn’t wanted the police to know that he had taken a shower. He then instructed her to place the clothing he’d been wearing into a bag. As he walked upstairs & noticed spots of blood on the banister, he told her to clean it & she did.
The pair then drove to the hospital in Hayley’s car where they were met by police who spoke with them while their bodycams were recording. Jonathan was clearly wearing different clothing than the footage from the roadside earlier that morning. He described Katie as his wee sister-in-law & a great girl, a really hard worker. He denied that she had been suicidal or that he’d noticed that she seemed depressed.
When asked if Katie had a partner, he said no. He claimed she had been especially tired in the previous weeks & when he found her with caffeine pills, he had taken them away. He said he encouraged her to rest rather than taking stimulants. He claimed that when he had left the house that morning to take his children to his mother’s house, his 3-year-old had called out, Bye, bye, Katie. According to Magee, he gave this bit of information to establish that she had been alive when he left that morning.
Jonathan later told Hayley Robb that he had given Katie a hiding, meaning he beat her the previous night. Later that day when he was with Hayley & another woman named Jill Robinson, he said he would be able to explain her injuries away by telling medical staff that she had been trampled by a horse. Both women had been in sexual relationships with him & went on to help him cover his tracks by destroying evidence & backing up his story.
While Hayley cleaned blood up from the house & helped him take a cold shower, Jill helped her wash his clothing at an outdoor laundromat in Fintona.
Each of these women had been subjected to violence at the hands of Jonathan & he had been controlling Hayley since she was 18. Not only had he been abusive toward her, but she had also seen him assault other women. Police were also aware that he had assaulted Jill on numerous occasions as well.
Because of their roles in concealing evidence, 30-year-old Hayley Robb, 42-year-old Jill Robinson as well as 23-year-old Rose De Monmorency-Wright, who lived with Katie & Jonathan, were given suspended prison sentences for withholding information & perverting the course of justice in connection with Katie’s murder. Each of these women were part of the Northern Ireland equestrian community & were said to be completely under Jonathan’s spell.
Hayley Robb pleaded guilty to withholding information & perverting the course of justice by washing clothing worn by Jonathan & cleaning the blood in his home. She was sentenced to two years in prison with 2 years probation.
Jill Robinson admitted to perverting the course of justice by washing Jonathan’s clothes & she was sentenced to 16 months in prison with two years probation.
Rose De Montmorency-Wright, who admitted to withholding information while knowing about Jonathan’s alleged assault on Katie, was sentenced to eight months in prison with two years probation.
Defense barristers for the three women indicated that they were genuinely remorseful for their actions, but indicated they had also been controlled by Jonathan themselves.
One day after the trial began, 36-year-old Jonathan Creswell was found dead in his home on April 24, 2024 after taking his own life. To Detective Sgt James Brannigan, this was his way of staying in control until the bitter end. It was something that angered him because the court case was going to reveal everything, something the coward had been unable to handle. In the end, Brannigan quit his job due to his frustrations with the case & the intimidation he experienced from the police during his investigation.
Like Brannigan, Katie’s family & loved ones were highly upset that Jonathan had once again silenced Katie’s voice. Brannigan has since founded The Katie Trust, an independent charity that will support families who have lost loved ones under sudden or suspicious circumstances, offering specialist investigative reviews, advocacy & answers. It’s also a way to honor & remember Katie so that what happened to her doesn’t happen to someone else.
Many were left to wonder how Katie’s family hadn’t recognized the abuse & control she was under from Jonathan Cresswell. However, coercive control can be very subtle & slowly isolates a victim. Because he had been controlling Katie since she was 9 or 10-years-old, he was able to slowly detach her from reality as well as her support system so even those who were close to her struggled to see what was happening until it was too late.
Although they may have noticed warning signs, it’s likely they hadn’t grasped the full scale of abuse because Jonathan was so deeply embedded into their lives. In most cases, an abuser will present one face in front of the family & another when they have their victim isolated. He was such a highly manipulative, evil person that he somehow managed to exert control over others around him, to the point that three other women assisted him in erasing evidence.
What happened to Katie Simpson wasn’t just a tragedy, it was also a major failure by those who were meant to protect her, one that ended with a young woman losing her life in a way that should have never happened. Her story is a reminder that abuse doesn’t always look obvious from the outside & sometimes the most dangerous people can be hiding behind trust, authority or charm.
If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please know that help is available. You can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.
References:
- Pony Club: Show jumping
- ITV: Former detective says Jonathan Creswell taking own life was ‘his last bit of control’
- ITV: Woman who came face-to-face with Jonathan Cresswell says he was ‘like the devil’
- Police Service of Northern Ireland: Three women were sentenced for offences in connection with death of Katie Simpson
- The Irish Times: Horse trainer accused of murdering showjumper found dead ahead of second day of trial
- The Irish Times: The murder of Katie Simpson: The full story
- Crime & Investigation: Katie Simpson: The death of a showjumper
- The U.S. Sun: Pure evil: The tragic case of showjumper, 21, killed by ‘devil’ her sister loved – and his twisted attempt to cover up her murder
- The Irish Sun: Shocking findings: Damning review reveals tragic Katie Simpson’s family ‘failed’ by ‘flawed’ initial cop probe into showjumper’s murder
- The Guardian: Death of a Showjumper review – the investigators in this bleak true crime drama restore your faith in humanity
- Police Ombudsman: Initial police investigation into Katie Simpson death was ‘flawed’ & ‘failed the Simpson family’
- Belfast Telegraph: ‘He hit me over & over’: Olympian on abusive relationship with trainer linked to murder of showjumper Katie
- Crime World: Left to rot: The forgotten grave of evil killer & rapist Jonathan Cresswell
- Irish Independent: Killer Jonathan Cresswell emptied victim Katie Simpson’s bank account as she lay dying in hospital
- Armaghi: Horse trainer goes on trial for alleged rape & murder of Co Armagh woman Katie Simpson
- Armaghi: Victim who reported Jonathan Cresswell to PSNI in 2016 warned ‘he was dangerous’
- Armaghi: PSNI failed to photograph Katie Simpson’s shocking injuries at hospital
- Armaghi: No definitive account of last hours as truth dies with Katie & her killer
