Reporting restrictions lifted as Stephen McCullagh faces trial over voyeurism and indecent images of children

On a bill of indictment covering a 16-year time span between 1 January 2007 and 30 January 2023, Stephen McCullagh faces 17 charges of voyeurism, as well as single charges of making and possessing an indecent image of a child.

The voyeurism charges allege that for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification, he covertly recorded 12 women “doing a private act…and you knew that the person did not consent to the recording of the act with that intention”.

Previous courts have heard that according to the Crown case, McCullagh had secretly filmed women in a range of places, both in private and public spaces.

Those files were discovered saved in folders in a computer hard drive owned by McCullagh and the court heard how the folders had titles such as “f*****…dated…random”.

“When the court looks at what was recorded, these were private acts, but they were sexual acts in many of the cases and the court will be able to see the defendant is engaging in these sexual acts for sexual gratification,” a prosecuting lawyer told the court when McCullagh was initially charged two years ago.

In one video, the prosecutor disclosed how “there’s a period of about 20 minutes after the recording is set up by the defendant which is seen”.

“The individual walks in and there’s about 20 minutes where nothing is occurring,” she told the court, submitting that when there is sexual activity, the woman “appears not to acknowledge the camera in any way” so a jury “properly directed” could infer she did not know about it and therefore had not consented.

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The other women, the court heard, had been spoken to and they had all confirmed they had not consented to being recorded.

Some of the videos had been recorded in public spaces, such as supermarket car parks where the person holding the camera “zooms in” to their breasts and bottoms.

Material allegedly found on McCullagh’s hard drive included images of the women, either naked or half dressed, which had been cropped and photoshopped together to make it appear they were lying in bed together, said the barrister.

Following an application by the prosecution, a reporting restriction was imposed in case publishing the voyeurism case would create prejudice in McCullagh’s murder trial.

Earlier this year, McCullagh was unanimously convicted of the murder of Natalie McNally and he is currently serving a minimum 31-year life tariff for the “exceptionally brutal" killing of his pregnant partner in Lurgan on December 18 2022.

Following submissions by Inside the Courtroom NI and despite objections from the defence, Judge Patrick Lynch KC removed that reporting restriction on Thursday (September 17).

He told Belfast Crown Court while every defendant has a right to a fair trial, free from any prejudice, “however, one must face the reality of life”.

“There is no chance that 12 people in Northern Ireland, brought arbitrarily together, would not have collective or individual prior knowledge of the murder,” said the judge.

“Therefore in my view, the reporting restriction is unnecessary and therefore, I take it away; it no longer applies,” Judge Lynch ruled.