Naomi Long

“Subject to Executive approval, I intend to bring forward legislative proposals to make upskirting a specific offence in a Justice Bill planned for introduction in the Assembly in early 2021,” she said in response to a written Assembly question.

Upskirting, the practice of taking sexually intrusive photos, is explicitly criminalised in Scotland under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 and was criminalised in England and Wales last year under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019.

In a consultation document published last February, when there was no Executive in place, the Department of Justice warned that there could be a legislative gap in Northern Ireland.

The launch of the consultation, which focused on child sexual exploitation, coincided with the conviction of a teenage boy for taking covert upskirt photos of two teachers at his school, which prompted calls for a review of the law.

The boy was found guilty on five counts of committing acts of outraging public decency. The consultation document warns that this offence “usually requires someone to have witnessed the action, but upskirting is often unobserved and the victim may not even be aware that it is taking place”.

A spokesperson for the Department told Irish Legal News that it “aims to publish a response to this consultation in September 2020”.

The Bar Council of Northern Ireland, in its response to the consultation, said it “agrees that there would be benefit in exploring the feasibility of evolving our current laws to include upskirting as a distinct criminal offence”.