The murder of children’s nurse Karen Cummings, who died after being found injured in Laurel Heights in Banbridge, Co Down, this past weekend, has shaken the community. Two men, Glenn King, 32, of no fixed address in Lurgan and Kevin McGuigan Jr., 42, of Annacloy Park in Hillsborough, have been charged with her murder and appeared at Newry Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. Northern Ireland’s attorney general again urged people to be careful about comments posted on social media in relation to active criminal cases. She said that social media posts have the potential to impact jurors who have to decide whether someone is guilty or not of an offence based on evidence properly before them.
Hundreds of people attended vigil services held in Banbridge and Newry in memory of Cummings this past week. More than 600 people attended the vigil in Banbridge on Thursday evening, with banners bearing the names of 25 women killed in Northern Ireland since 2020 being held up. Attendees held candles, speeches and a minute’s silence. Among those who spoke at the event was Noel McNally, whose pregnant daughter Natalie was murdered in Lurgan in December 2022.
Eileen Murphy, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid Down/Armagh, said the vigil had been organised in response to the local community. She said, “Our vigil tonight is for all the women who have been murdered this year – seven of them to date and the year’s not over yet. It is a tribute to Karen and her memory that her community, her local community, felt so strongly about her murder.”
Alliance Cllr Joy Ferguson was among those attending the vigils and spoke to the BBC. She called for a “change in society, towards women”, saying, “We need reform in the justice system, and we need consensual, respectful relationships and for role models to display those in society, we need a wholesale change in society, towards women.” Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd said society must do everything it could to end such incidents: “We as a society, as individuals, as legislators, as decision-makers, have to do everything within our power to bring this to an end.
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