Creep who shared naked pics of ex and battered woman at Wolfe Tones gig admits money laundering

Stephen Brunty (28), of Glencolin Heights in west Belfast, pleaded guilty to a single charge of converting £3,900 of criminal property on dates between August 31 and September 4, 2018.

Laganside Magistrates Court was told he had faced two further charges of laundering £1,500 and transferring £1,214.53 in dirty money, but these were withdrawn following his plea.

At a brief hearing on March 1 the matter was adjourned for pre-sentence reports and Brunty was freed on bail.

Last year the thug avoided jail after he was handed a suspended sentence for a cocaine and alcohol-fuelled attack on a woman during a concert.

In 2021, he was jailed for four months for disclosing private sexual photographs of his former partner after hacking her Facebook account and posting them online.

Reacting to the latest conviction, his ex and revenge porn victim Chloe Leigh McIlwaine said: “If he’d have been in jail, he wouldn’t have been able to attack that wee girl at the concert.

“Women don’t feel safe with him around. I was disgusted when I found out about the conviction for money laundering. Yes, I got a bit of justice, but if I had went to the police sooner then justice might have been served better.”

Ms McIlwaine waived her right to anonymity in 2021 to tell us about the “hell” Brunty had put her through.

She said her family was still subjected to abuse by his associates, and recalled how he was uncharacteristically flush with cash around the time of the laundering offence.

Ms McIlwaine added: “We were together at that time, but I had no idea he was up to anything like that.

“I remember him having loads of money but had no idea where it came from. He used to gamble a lot so I thought he’d had a winner. He never told me what he did half the time anyway.”

Last November, Laganside Magistrates heard how Brunty launched an unprovoked attack on a young woman during a Wolfe Tones gig at Falls Park.

It was heard he had been drinking vodka and snorting cocaine before becoming aggressive, eventually dragging the victim to the ground by the hair and punching her in the face.

He pleaded guilty to charges of common assault and obstructing police and was handed a five-month prison sentence suspended for three years.

The year before, Ms McIlwaine told this newspaper how she became a recluse and tried to take her own life after Brunty posted images of her online.

He denied a single charge of disclosing a private sexual photograph but was convicted and jailed for four months, as well as being slapped with a two-year restraining order banning him from having any contact with Ms McIlwaine.