Stephen McCullagh has been found guilty of murdering Natalie McNally at her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in December 2022, after a trial which spanned more than four weeks.
The 36-year-old had denied murdering Ms McNally, who was 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy at the time of her death.
McCullagh had denied murdering his pregnant partner, however it took a jury of six men and six women just over two hours of deliberation to deliver a guilty verdict at Belfast Crown Court.
Ms McNally, 32, was beaten, strangled and stabbed at her Lurgan home, with the prosecution claiming that McCullagh had killed his girlfriend after setting up a “false alibi” that he was livestreaming a video gaming session on the night of her murder.
A digital forensic analyst had told the trial that evidence indicated the six-hour gaming stream had been recorded four days earlier, and was not recorded live, as McCullagh had claimed when interviewed by the police.
An analyst said that the pre-recorded file was stopped at 00:05 on 19th December and then deleted; it had been during the broadcast that McCullagh murdered Natalie.
The trial heard that the likely motivation for the murder was that McCullagh had read messages sent by Natalie to other men in the weeks leading up to her death. The jury was presented with evidence that some of those messages were sexually explicit in nature whilst others discussed potentially breaking up with McCullagh.
The case largely centred on McCullagh’s pre-recorded gaming stream which was broadcast on YouTube on the night of the murder. Police later proved it was pre-recorded, despite McCullagh claiming it had been recorded live.
Video clips from the livestream that McCullagh had initially used as an alibi were played to the jury in court. The prosecution highlighted how during the pre-recorded clip, McCullagh had stressed that it was a Sunday night, that he was recording live, and that it was a week before Christmas, when it had not been recorded on the night of McNally’s murder.
“Hello to all on this glorious Sunday evening. I just thought why not, I’m going to do a livestream, because this day next week is Christmas. So what more could you want for Christmas other than an evening with your old pal, Stephen?” McCullagh said in one segment played in court.
He later changed his evidence to admit it was pre-recorded after evidence was presented by a cybersecurity expert.
The prosecution argued that the recording allowed McCullagh the time needed to travel to Lurgan on foot and take a bus to Natalie’s home. The court heard he had gone to Lurgan the following night to “discover” Natalie’s body and make an emotional call to the police.
Thousands of hours of CCTV footage had been examined during the lengthy trial, which police said charted McCullagh’s journey to and from the crime scene – McNally’s own home.
Stephen McCullagh had refused to give evidence during the trial.
The defence had attempted to pick apart the prosecution’s case, arguing that there were questions around missing CCTV footage in the circumstantial case against McCullagh.
In a closing speech last week, McCullagh’s defence claimed that there were jigsaw pieces in the case that didn’t fit – claiming that the evidence pointed “towards some other killer,” describing another man, Ms McNally’s former boyfriend as a “walking, talking reasonable doubt” elephant in the room. McCullagh’s defence asked the jury to consider the possibility that he had been “set up.”
That man was arrested, interviewed and extensively cross-examined at the trial.
However, McCullagh, of Woodlands Gardens in Lisburn, was found guilty in a unanimous verdict – prompting cheering from McNally’s family in court.
Jurors had heard that McCullagh had “lied and lied again” over the course of the five-week trial.
The trial heard that Natalie McNally had been punched, choked and stabbed – and had received blunt force trauma during the course of what was a “prolonged” attack.
McCullagh will now face a life sentence, with a minimum tariff to be set at a hearing in May.