Jonathan Creswell watched Katie Simpson take her last breath in the hospital

After Katie Simpson’s family were told their “funny and outgoing” daughter, niece, sister and granddaughter had committed suicide, Creswell, 36, was allowed to visit the 21-year-old while she lay in a coma in hospital, having put her in that state by choking her unconscious.

We previously exclusively revealed that Creswell apologised to Katie – a woman he beat and abused for years before finally taking her young life – just before the coffin lid was closed. It can now also be revealed that he stood next to her grieving mother Noleen and watched her die.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Simpson stated: “When I saw Katie in the hospital, as soon as I walked in I could feel the frustration and anger coming from her – I thought it was because she wanted to leave.

“If I had known what I know now, if one of the girls had told the truth, I would have been able to comfort her much better. I could have told her, ‘We know what happened to you and we will get this sorted out,’ and that there is justice for your suffering.

“If I had known, Jonathan Creswell would never have been at Katie’s bedside when her heart stopped beating, nor at her wake or funeral,” she says in her heartbreaking statement.

The “girls” Ms Simpson is referring to are Hayley Robb, Jill Robinson and Rose de Montmorency-Wright, who are due to be sentenced in the coming weeks for helping Creswell cover his tracks and deflect blame for Katie’s death.

Robinson (42), of Blackfort Road, Omagh, admitted perverting the course of justice on 3 August 2020.

Robb (30), of Weavers Meadow in Banbridge, Co Down, admitted two charges of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.

Rose De Montmorency-Wright (22), of Craigantlet Road, Newtownards, Co Down, admitted withholding information between 9 October 2020 and 13 October 2021.

In an agreed basis of facts, prosecutor KC Sam Magee said: “Mr Creswell himself fabricated a lie by pretending to others that he had found Katie hanging from a strap in a stairwell and claiming that she had committed suicide.

“These defendants did not know the truth about how she died.

“However, they have attributed and been complicit in his conspiracy of silence on a number of critical facts. In the case of Robb and Robinson, they have taken positive actions which have the effect of deterring those who attempted to get to the bottom of what had happened from uncovering the truth.”

They all admit their guilt on the grounds that they “did not know or believe that Creswell had murdered or killed the deceased”, but knew that he had inflicted actual bodily harm on her, which they concealed from the police.

The three also admit that they were “aware that the police would be investigating the circumstances of Katie’s death and that Creswell did not want the police to know about his attack on Katie”, even though they knew that he had, in his own words, “given her a beating”.

While De Montmorency-Wright did not disclose this information, Robb and Robinson washed Creswell’s bloodstained clothes, while Robb – who eventually admitted to police that she had had an affair with Creswell for “nine to ten years” before his indictment – confessed that she had wiped Katie’s blood off a stair banister.

When Creswell, 36, searched Katie’s phone and discovered that she had started a relationship with another man, he flew into a fit of jealousy, raped and beat her with a rod or stiff strap and strangled her to death.

Mrs Simpson describes how “the shock of learning that my wonderful daughter had taken her own life is a shock that will stay with me forever” and one that hits her every time she hears of a young person’s suicide.

“I remember walking a few days after Katie died and looking at a hedge full of thorns and sharp branches. I wanted to throw myself into it so that the pain would make me feel something different.

“I tried to come to terms with it for so long and then I was shocked again when I was told that Johnny had been arrested in connection with the death of my wonderful daughter,” Ms Simpson said, adding that any of the defendants could have helped to shorten the police investigation, “but he chose not to.”

“I can’t understand why none of them could hear Katie’s screams and be honest with her about what happened. I’m so sad and frustrated and confused. If I had known then what really happened, and not years and months later, I would have had someone to take my anger out on – instead of myself,” she says.

Katie’s sister Rebecca expressed the same anger, saying: “It was the biggest insult that Jonathan, Jill, Hayley and Rose came into my house, Katie’s house, and now knew what they had done and that they hadn’t said anything.”

“I never thought the world could be so cruel that it would allow Katie’s death to be lied about in this way.

“I feel a lot of anger and frustration towards these people and find them pathetic.

“To find out seven months later that Katie had been attacked and that her death was one of the causes was like losing her all over again, with completely different feelings. I will never forgive those people for their actions. I will hate them forever. Katie will never be forgotten,” she says.

For Katie’s grandmother Angela Mullan, “the shock and sudden loss of Katie is the worst thing I have ever felt,” a pain made worse by the fact that, unlike Creswell, Mrs. Mullan was never able to say goodbye to Kate in person.

“I screamed and cried when we got the call. It’s also very painful because we couldn’t say goodbye. A video call to the hospital was our farewell.”

“It was because of Covid rules, but the person accused of murder was allowed to be there.

“At the funeral, the man accused of Katie’s murder and one of the girls who pleaded guilty carried Katie’s coffin. They were crying. Looking back, I was crying, but now that I know what happened, it upsets me that they had no right to cry.”

Katie’s family are not the only ones submitting statements to Londonderry District Judge Neil Rafferty KC as he considers what sentence will do justice to this case and the crimes committed by Robb, Robinson and Montmorency-Wright.

According to a character reference written on behalf of Montmorency-Wright, she was Katie’s “closest and most beloved friend,” but she became caught up in a whirlwind “far beyond her comprehension.”

The character reference was written by Judena Leslie, the former Commissioner for Public Appointments in Northern Ireland, and it states that the defendant had an “innocent upbringing”. As a family friend, I have known her for over twenty years as an “enthusiastic and cheerful child who trusted adults, was honest and had no sense of malice”.

“An innocent upbringing should be an advantage, but perhaps not when you consider that in her first job away from home and still a teenager, Rose was unwittingly exposed on a daily basis to a person of profoundly malign influence; a man with a violent criminal record who posed as an ordinary and charming fellow horseman.”

The statement emphasized that no one had alerted them to Creswell’s malicious behavior, nor had any “action been taken to alert them or protect them from it.”

“It was therefore not surprising that Rose, in her naivety, could not really appreciate the dangers and nature of what she was involved in, even when the police and court proceedings began.

“The full severity of the police trial she experienced shocked this young woman at a time when she was struggling with deep grief in an extremely confusing situation.

“The terrible tragedy that has befallen Katie Simpson, Rose’s closest and beloved friend, remains a source of great heartache to Rose.

“And she and her family are deeply sympathetic to the pain Katie’s family must be going through.

“Rose now carries an exceptionally heavy burden that she will have to deal with throughout her adult life.

“I join Rose and her family in asking the court, with deep respect, for compassion and leniency for a young person who has been placed in a terrible, frightening situation that is far beyond their comprehension.”