The police’s error is hard to forgive, but ministers must treat Northern Ireland’s wider human safety needs as a priority too

A new documentary film recounts a grim story from the Northern Ireland Troubles. Half a century ago, Thomas Niedermayer was a German businessman living in Belfast. At Christmas in 1973, he was kidnapped from his home by the IRA, possibly to be traded for imprisoned bombers, and murdered. His body was found in a shallow grave in 1980. Ten years on, his widow, Ingeborg, took her own life. A year after that, the Niedermayers’ younger daughter, Renate, killed herself. Another two years later, their elder daughter, Gabriella, did the same.

The Niedermayer murder, as detailed in the Face Down documentary, was vicious. For the family, the damage lasted for generations, creating new victims and further tragedies. The lesson is frighteningly timely. This week, the Police Service of Northern Ireland mistakenly published an online spreadsheet detailing the surnames, initials, ranks or grades, locations and departments of all current PSNI officers and civilian staff members. The spreadsheet was not taken down for three hours. Approximately 10,000 people were listed. The consequences could endure for decades.

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