Onchan Commissioners agree to independent investigation into alleged assault

The local authority says the investigation will promote ‘transparency’ and ‘fairness’

Onchan Commissioners has agreed to have an independent investigation into an alleged assault that occurred at the end of last month.

In July, it was alleged that board member David Quirk assaulted a member of the public at the end of its meeting.

In its minutes, the commissioners resolved that both the complainant and Mr Quirk will be given the opportunity to provide information for the investigation.

The local authority says the investigation will promote ‘transparency’ and ‘fairness’ whilst reducing the risk of allegations of bias. 

Onchan Commissioners have agreed that the investigation will be purely to establish what happened on the evening of the 27 July.

The board held the discussion in private, but the minutes have since been made public, to decide how it should proceed following the acceptance of a formal complaint.

It resolved that both the complainant and Mr Quirk will be given the opportunity to provide information for the investigation.

The investigation will also provide the board with an impartial assessment as well as helping promote ‘transparency’ and ‘fairness’ whilst reducing the risk of allegations of bias or procedural unfairness.

At the moment, there aren’t any details about how long it will take or who will conduct it.

Mr Quirk claims he acted in 'self-protection' and put his hands up in a defensive manner following verbal abuse.

He adds he was approached 'aggressively' following the closure of the public section of the meeting. 

Mr Quirk says he then told the person to ‘back off’ and asked them to contact him in writing or on the phone if they wanted to raise any concerns. 

We were also told at the time that the local authority was aware of a social media post which contained information about the alleged assault.

Five of the members were in favour of the investigation; Scott Wilson, Gabriella Corkish, Oliver Lockwood, Anthony Allen and Andrew Gibson.

Miss Corkish is reported to have said the matter shouldn’t be ‘ignored’ and that if board members conducted themselves ‘appropriately and professionally’ it would minimise the likelihood of ‘inflammatory interactions’.

However, the minutes show that Mr Turton said the board has no legal powers to act and questioned how an investigation would resolve the issues.

He also said parties should contact the police and allow the matter to be dealt with by them.

Whilst Mr Gibson said the alleged conduct had the potential to cause ‘reputational damage’ to the Authority and bring it into disrepute.

Robin Turton and Mr Quirk voted against the proposal for an investigation.

You can find out more here.

Gabriella Corkish and Oliver Lockwood are candidates for Onchan in the House of Keys General Election. The other candidates standing are Rob Callister, Julie Edge, Rachel Glover and Peter Karran.