´óÏó´«Ã½

A man who posted a "grossly offensive" animated image of a woman who was murdered in Lurgan last year has been sentenced to three months in jail.

Natalie McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed to death at her home outside the town in December 2022.

Kian Withers, of James Street, Lurgan, admitted committing an act outraging public decency.

He was given a twelve-month sentence at Craigavon Crown Court today.

The majority of the sentence will be spent on licence.

The court had been told that Withers, 22, posted the image on Facebook to "lighten the mood" and claimed it was not meant to cause offence.

But a female relative of Ms McNally had explained how it had caused "deep distress and extreme hurt" and had left her "horrified and very shaken".

The image had been created on an app and used a family image of Ms McNally in her graduation gown.

It was animated and appeared to be singing, the court heard.

It was shared under a media outlet's social media post about a police appeal and appeared on three different Facebook posts between 23 to 28 December 2022.

Withers was subsequently identified by the police and during interviews he made full admissions to creating the image and posting it online.

Before sentencing Withers, the judge referred to details of psychiatric and pre-sentence reports.

These outlined a troubled and "solitary childhood" in which he was taken into care, bullied at school, had suicidal tendencies and had subsequently, the judge explained, "in a sense written himself off".

Withers had also said: "I don't even classify myself as human."

Passing sentence today, the judge said the incident was "an unfortunate by-product of the internet" where people can "skulk in the safety of their own homes".

He said he accepted the posting was not directed at Ms McNally's family, but he did not accept that Withers was "as uninsightful" as he claimed.

The judge referred to a question Withers was asked during questioning, about how he would feel if it was about his mother, and he had replied "I'd be furious."

He added that a message had to go out to the public that "this will not be tolerated".

He said Withers had little option but to accept what he did and sentenced him to twelve months, with three months to be spent in prison and the remaining nine months on licence.