DEEP DISTRESS | 

Troll jailed for posting ‘grossly offensive’ image of tragic Natalie McNally

Kian Withers posted an image of Ms McNally, which he had animated to make her appear to sing a song

Yesterday at 15:44

A man who posted a “grossly offensive” animation of murder victim Natalie McNally under a public Facebook appeal to help find her killer has been sentenced to three months in prison.

Kian Withers, of James Street in Lurgan, will also serve nine months on licence.

Ms McNally (32) was was found dead in her Lurgan home on December 18 and police launched an investigation.

Between December 22-29 last year, Withers posted an image of Ms McNally, which he had animated to make her appear to sing a song, ‘the lyrics of which were inappropriate and indecent in the circumstances contrary to Common Law’, Craigavon Crown Court heard on Friday.

At an earlier hearing, he admitted a single charge of committing an act outraging public decency.

However, it was only this week that it emerged his actions involved an image of the deceased.

Prosecuting counsel Nicola Auret described it as “grossly offensive” and explained that the 22-year-old was arrested after police received a complaint from a cousin of Ms McNally regarding a Facebook comment from an account named “John John”.

The cousin said it caused her ‘deep distress and hurt’ and she was ‘horrified and very shaken’ by it.

She feared that immediate family members of Ms McNally would see it during their state of vulnerability at that time.

This comment had been shared under a Cool FM post, which was a police appeal seeking help from members of the public in identifying a male in a CCTV clip as the PSNI attempted to track down the Lurgan woman’s killer.

The image posted had been created on an app which used the publicly available image of Ms McNally in her graduation gown.

At Withers’ sentencing on Friday, Judge Patrick Lynch KC said he had taken into account multiple factors about the defendant.

These included the fact that he was perceived to be a ‘damaged and disabled’ individual, that he suffered abuse from his alcoholic father in his younger years, and that he has been diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder, for which he had stopped taking medication in the lead-up to his offence.

However, the judge said he “does not accept” that Withers is “quite as uninsightful as has been presented to this court” and said although he believes that the video was not directed to cause harm to the McNally family, the court must “send a message to other perpetrators that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated”.

Judge Lynch added that had Withers contested the case and not pleaded guilty, he would have received 16 months’ imprisonment.

In police interviews, Withers had talked about his “severe humour”, stating: “I’m just different, I’m a one-man band.”

The court heard that he had also told officers he ‘only wanted to lighten the mood and said: “I think people are too oversensitive to things like this.”

However, when he was asked how he would react if something similar was made about his own mother, he conded that he would be “furious”.

Defence counsel Ian Turkington conveyed regret on Withers’ behalf for the hurt his actions has caused.

Stephen McCullagh (33), from Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, has since been charged with Ms McNally’s murder.