CASE ADJOURNED | 

Famous Irish guitar-maker to argue that he did not record upskirt video in NI, court hears

While Stephen McIlwrath has previously admitted outraging public decency by recording a video up a schoolgirl’s skirt

Yesterday at 18:46

A guitar maker for international music stars turned lecherous creep is set to argue that he recorded an upskirt video in the Far East and not NI, a court heard this week.

While Stephen McIlwrath has previously admitted outraging public decency by recording a video up a schoolgirl’s skirt, defence counsel Mark Barlow told Craigavon Crown Court the 63-year-old now contends that sick clip may have been recorded in Singapore or China.

He also told Judge Patrick Lynch KC “whether or not the prosecution, on reflection, are in a position to be able to assert that this video was recorded in Northern Ireland – if they cannot then obviously there is an issue there because it’s a jurisdictional point on the common law offence.”

As the judge pointed however, despite McIlwrath’s claims over lack of memory and confusion, “the working assumption is your client knows what the video was about and where it was taken, is that not a working assumption”.

Those comments were echoed by prosecuting lawyer Joseph Murphy who suggested “at the end of the day, the defendant recorded that vide and despite his denials or his memory of recording that, we would say he knows where he recorded it.”

Mucky McIlwrath was due to be sentenced on Friday but the case has now been adjourned to September as he seeks to vacate an earlier admission of guilt in relation to the charge of outraging public decency by committing a “lewd and disgusting act.”

There’s also potentially going to be evidence called in relation to charges of McIlwrath having 175 indecent images of children, including more than 40 of kids as young as six being raped.

While the prosecution contend that the evidence and exhibits supports their case that McIlwrath has an unhealthy and illegal sexual interest in children, according to the defence he had the images in order to alert the authorities.

Last March McIlwrath, from Breton View in Lisburn, entered guilty pleas to 11 charges of making or possessing a total of 175 indecent photographs of children and one charge of outraging public decency “by recording upskirt images of an unknown female” on a date unknown between 1 July 2016 and 30 May 2018.

Stephen McIlwrath also maintains that an ‘up skirting video’ he recorded of a schoolgirl using an escalator in an unknown shopping centre was done “by accident.”

As prosecuting lawyer Joseph Murphy submitted at Craigavon Crown Court however, the fact that he had 175 images including some which were downloaded and some saved as screenshots, coupled with the up-skirting video recorded by the 63-year-old “is supportive of the prosecution contention that the defendant has exhibited a sexual interest in young children.”

A further count against McIlwrath, who is the founder and managing director of Avalon Guitars in Ards, alleging that he possessed indecent images “with a view” to either show or distribute them to others was “left on the books” by the prosecution.

Opening the facts of the case for the first time last Friday, Mr Murphy told the court how officers from the PSNI internet child protection team searched McIlwrath’s home and seized a total of 21 devices.

When the officers asked McIlwrath if he had any indecent images of children, McIlwrath declared “I’m on your side” and admitted that he had some on an iPhone7 which was seized but he claimed “they were disgusting and abhorred him”.

“He explained that the reason he had them was that he had posted an image of a naked adult female to his Tumblr account but the parent company Yahoo removed it as it violated their policies,” said Mr Murphy adding that according to the defendant, “he was scrolling through the website and came across other images posted by other users of children in sexualised positions”.

Saving them to his Tumblr blog, McIlwrath claimed he was going to send them to Yahoo to “highlight the inconsistencies of applying their policies” but Mr Murphy said that account was not accepted by the Crown.

He argued if that had been the case, McIlwrath would have been more likely to have saved the details of the people who had posted the offending material but he had not, adding that the up skirting video was also indicative of McIlwrath trying to deflect blame.

The lawyer outlined that of the 175 images of children aged approximately between six and 14, 43 were categorised at level A which, according to legal guidelines depicts children involved in penetrative sexual acts including rape or in sexual scenes which include elements of sadomasochism.

Mr Murphy further argued that given the nature of the offences it would be necessary and appropriate for a Sexual Offences Prevention Order to also be imposed as that would ensure that MIlwrath was not committing any further offences and would prevent any risk of “serious sexual harm occurring in the future.”

In relation to the upskirt video, he outlined how it had been recorded in an iPhone which was released by Apple in 2010 so “really, it could’ve been recorded at any stage between 2010 and 2018” when the creep was arrested.

In light of McIlwrath’s recent claims of recording it potentially in Singapore or China, Mr Murphy suggested that while “the jurisdictional issue is being raised now but we have to bear in mind the stage we are at in these proceedings”.

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“The defendant has entered a plea to that offence after being legally advised by his previous advisors…at the end of the day, the defendant recorded that video and despite his denials, we would say he knows where he recorded it.”

Mr Barlow said he had told McIlwrath “to find his old passport and any other material that supports his position that he was outside of this jurisdiction at a time when he had the iphone4” and adjourning the case to September, Judge Lynch advised him “you better get your ducks in order for that particular application.”