Lorcan Murphy: Why covert filming can be a gateway to more serious offending

Lorcan Tadgh Murphy, who was earlier this month jailed for murdering US nurse Mackenzie Michalski in 2024 in Hungary, had obsessively tried to pick up women across various European cities. Police in Budapest discovered that he had used a “spy pen” to covertly record his attempts, just as he had done previously in Dublin, where 16 women were recorded without their knowledge.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has been concerned for some time at the increasing use of hidden cameras, smart glasses, pen cameras and other covert recording devices to secretly film women and girls without their knowledge or consent.

And as smart glasses are becoming more mainstream – Meta has already sold an estimated 10 million pairs of its stylish Ray-Ban camera-enabled glasses – concerns are growing.

So if Murphy had been caught in Dublin in 2020 secretly filming women, would he have broken any law? Why do advocacy groups say these type of secret recordings are “often minimised as harmless”, but could in fact be “part of a path to future crime”? And what role do the makers of these devices, that could easily be used to secretly record, have in ensuring the public is protected?