THERE have been calls for society to take a tougher stance on violence against women after it emerged that a leading Orange Order member in Co Tyrone - who has been promoted to district master - has a conviction for killing his wife.
Stephen Fulton shot his wife Corien Fulton in the head in 1999 and was later convicted of manslaughter.
The 77-year-old was jailed for five years.
It has now emerged that the Former Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier has recently been appointed as district master of Cookstown.
Details of the appointment came to light after pictures were published in the local press.
It has also emerged that Mr Fulton's new deputy is Mid Ulster UUP councillor Mark Glasgow.
Fulton was pictured with several recently installed officers as members of the local district, LOL 3, offered "best wishes" for the year ahead.
The Orange Order last night failed to respond to requests for a comment.
The UUP was also contacted but did not respond.
The appointment comes at a time when violence against woman is again in the spotlight.
Last week hundreds of people attended a rally in memory of Co Armagh woman Natalie McNally.
Stephen McCullagh has since been charged with her murder.
When challenged last week Fulton complained that he had been betrayed.
“It happened over 20 years ago and I've did my time. Someone from within the Orange Order has been on to you and betrayed me. I don't know what else to say,” he told the Sunday Life.
Sinn Féin Mid Ulster assembly member Linda Dillon said society must stand against abuse and violence.
“Misogyny and the domestic abuse and violence against women and girls claims the lives of 16 women on this island every year and is impacting on thousands of women every day," she said.
“All of society must stand against this. There must be zero tolerance for mysognistic violence and abuse.”
A former part time staff sergeant with the RIR Fulton was 20 years older than his wife, who was 34, when she died.
At the time Omagh Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, heard that Fulton shot his wife in the head in the bedroom of their home at Old Rectory Heights in Cookstown.
It emerged in court that the murder victim had called her husband while he attended an RIR training camp in England to tell him she had met another man.
Jailing Fulton Mr Justice Gillen accepted that his actions had been substantially impaired by a classifiable mental disorder.
"I believe that it is against this background that the final straw which precipitated your taking your wife's life occurred when she removed her wedding ring in the bedroom," he said.
"I think that it may well have been at this moment when you decided to shoot her."
The judge told Fulton he must be punished despite "the provocation" he encountered.
"You have killed a comparatively young woman and for that the public interest requires that you be punished notwithstanding the medical report before me and the provocation under which you acted," he said.
He added that "a killing of this type will not be tolerated and those who allow themselves to be provoked in this way will suffer condign punishment".
However, he added that Fulton deserved credit for his guilty plea and it was accepted he was remorseful and that there was "a measure of provocation - by your wife's threatened departure".
