Lawyer faces discipline tribunal

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A lawyer who secretly filmed a girl in a cubicle at a Belfast leisure centre is to face a High Court disciplinary tribunal, the Law Society has said.

Ritchie Shaw MacRitchie had a voyeurism charge against him dropped.

However, at his trial the magistrate said she was satisfied the 31-year-old had recorded the act for sexual gratification.

The Public Prosecution Service is to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, with the potential for a retrial.

Mr MacRitchie, from Omeath, County Louth, was accused of using his phone to film the 17-year-old in a unisex changing room at the Falls Leisure Centre last October.

However, earlier this month, the magistrate said that as the young woman had been wearing her swimsuit, rather than being naked, or in her underwear, the voyeurism charge could not stand.

As a result she said she had no alternative but to accede to a defence application to dismiss the voyeurism charge.

The Public Prosecution Service had asked Magistrate Fiona Bagnall to explain her decision to the Court of Appeal.

On Thursday, a Law Society spokesman said: "The Council of the Law Society of Northern Ireland has accepted a recommendation from its professional ethics and guidance committee that Ritchie MacRitchie be referred to the disciplinary tribunal, which is an independent tribunal of the High Court."