Violence against women a particularly difficult issue in NI – Naomi Long

Violence against women and girls is a “particularly difficult” problem in Northern Ireland, Justice Minister Naomi Long has said.

Ms Long said the region remains a “patriarchal society” where there is still a “lot of sexism, chauvinism and misogyny”.

The minister was reacting following the conviction of Stephen McCullagh for the murder of his pregnant partner Natalie McNally.

Ms McNally was 15 weeks pregnant when she was attacked by McCullagh in her Lurgan home in December 2022.

He had attempted to create a false alibi by claiming that he had been livestreaming a six-hour video gaming session on YouTube on the night Ms McNally was killed.

The gaming session had instead been recorded in advance but broadcast on the evening McCullagh went to Ms McNally’s house and murdered her.

A jury at Belfast Crown Court took two hours to find McCullagh guilty on Monday.

Ms Long paid tribute to Ms McNally’s parents Bernie and Noel, who attended every day of the trial.

She told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme they had been “so dignified throughout this whole ordeal”.

Ms Long added: “The pain they have gone through is unimaginable and it has been further compounded as they have been going through all of this that they have had to sit through such an ordeal in court.

“I am glad they have got the justice that they and Natalie deserve.”

Ms Long said she believed society and politicians needed to “do better” with regards to violence against women and girls.

She said: “Sitting here with 30 women killed in six years, we have to say that pain that the McNallys have gone through is a pain that many families are going through, too many families.

“We want to do more to try and address these issues.

“In the last mandate we brought forward new legislation to deal with many of the issues, we are bringing forward further legislation in this mandate in the Department of Justice.

“We are also bringing forward policy that we hope will offer additional protections to women who may be at risk of domestic violence and abuse.

“But it is not just about what justice can do, because by then there are already victims and pain has been caused, it is about how we change the conversation in society, how we change the dial in terms of the vulnerability of women and girls to this kind of predatory behaviour and how we actually create a society that women and girls, and men and boys, are safe on our streets, in their homes and able to go about their lives without the constant fear of being victim to someone who has set out for violence or aggression.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we are there yet.”

Police are currently investigating another murder of a woman in Northern Ireland. A man is being questioned over the death of young mother Amy Doherty in Derry at the weekend.

Asked if violence against women was a Northern Ireland problem, the minister said: “I don’t think it is a Northern Ireland-only problem, but I think it is a particularly difficult issue in Northern Ireland in what we do have is a wider prevalence of violence against women and girls.

“I think there are lots of reasons for that.

“Northern Ireland remains a very patriarchal society, abuse of women generally is still accepted.

“There is still a lot of sexism, chauvinism, misogyny in our society.

“If it is called out by women the abuse that they take, whether it is online or in person, is extreme.

“We also have, coming out of a post-conflict society, a higher tolerance for violence, higher levels of PTSD and other risk factors which could allow people to become perpetrators.

“When we look at some of the research that has been done, the connection between domestic abuse and concentrated paramilitarism in communities also exacerbates some of these harms in that people are either, at the very basic level, afraid to report what is happening to them, afraid of being seen to be engaging with the PSNI where that is frowned upon.”