Natalie McNally was 15 weeks pregnant when she died.
Natalie McNally: Stephen McCullagh’s staged YouTube stream
A person who staged a faux YouTube gaming livestream to offer an alibi whereas he murdered his pregnant girlfriend Natalie McNally in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in December 2022, has been jailed right now. Ms McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was violently attacked and killed at her dwelling in Lurgan, Northern Eire, on December 18, 2022.
Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, denied murdering his associate, however was convicted in March by a jury throughout the fifth week of the trial at Belfast Crown Court docket. In the course of the trial, the prosecution has stated that McCullagh murdered Ms McNally after establishing a “false alibi” that he was livestreaming a video gaming session on YouTube.
We use your sign-up to offer content material in methods you have consented to and to enhance our understanding of you. This may increasingly embrace adverts from us and third events based mostly on our understanding. You may unsubscribe at any time. Learn our Privateness Coverage
Natalie McNally was 15 weeks pregnant when she was murdered (Picture: PA)
Whereas he had initially claimed the gaming session had been broadcast reside on December 18 in 2022, the night time Ms McNally was killed, police specialists found the six-hour stream had really been filmed 4 days earlier than and broadcast as reside that night time.
In the course of the sentencing listening to on June 3, decide Mr Justice Kinney stated the staged reside stream had been “fastidiously curated to seem as if it was streaming reside and to offer the defendant a carefully-planned full alibi to the homicide”.
Delivering the sentencing remarks at Belfast Crown Court docket, the decide additionally stated that McCullagh hung out with Ms McNally’s household within the aftermath of her loss of life.
The decide stated McCullagh introduced to the household as “devastated, distraught and shocked”.
“When he first arrived on the home on Christmas Day, throughout Natalie’s wake, the household introduced him in and comforted him,” stated the decide.
“They allowed him to spend intensive time alone with Natalie, ostensibly to grieve for her.”
The decide stated that, when contemplating the tariff, he assessed McCullagh’s culpability as “extraordinarily excessive”, describing the homicide as a “brutal and frenzied assault”.
Stephen McCullagh who has been handed a life sentence jail tariff of 31 years (Picture: PSNI/PA Wire)
McCullagh was handed a life sentence jail tariff of 31 years, the courtroom heard. He gave no response as he was advised he should serve 31 years earlier than he might be thought-about eligible for launch by the Parole Board.
As he ordered McCullagh to face earlier than he set the jail time period, decide Mr Justice Kinney stated the sentence handed “can’t presumably mirror the worth of Natalie’s life, or certainly that of her unborn little one, Dean” or meet the household’s sense of “grief and loss”.
“Stephen McCullagh, you might have dedicated a brutal and mindless homicide,” he stated. “You deliberate this homicide in remorseless element. You attacked somebody you profess to like in a frenzied assault, which was characterised by its extreme and gratuitous violence.
“Regardless of that frenzy, the killing was cold-blooded and calculated, as evidenced by the intensive planning main as much as the homicide and your actions afterwards. Your behaviour in direction of the McNally household confirmed your absolute dedication to cowl your tracks.”
There was silence within the public gallery stuffed with Ms McNally’s household and buddies as they watched McCullagh being led from the dock following the listening to at Belfast Crown Court docket.
Because the door closed behind McCullagh, many within the public gallery turned and hugged one another.
Talking outdoors courtroom, Ms McNally’s father Noel stated his household has been by way of “unimaginable ache and grief over the lack of our stunning daughter Natalie” during the last three-and-a-half years.
Stephen McCullagh within the faux reside stream he broadcast on December 18, 2022 (Picture: PSNI)
He advised the media after the sentencing: “We want to thank everybody who has helped us to get right here right now, all our household and buddies, the entire group of Lurgan and Craigavon, and all through this nation and past for all of the kindness and the assist that now we have acquired.
“We’d additionally prefer to thank the PSNI and the prosecution service for getting us to this conclusion right now.
“At the moment we don’t rejoice the sentence handed down as Bernadette, my three boys and myself are serving a life sentence because the homicide of our beloved Natalie, however hopefully it would serve to discourage and to assist cease violence in opposition to ladies and women on this nation. With respect, we are actually asking for some privateness to proceed to grieve.”
In the course of the trial, the prosecution stated McCullagh had then travelled to Lurgan on the December 18 night, killed Ms McNally after which travelled dwelling in a taxi to his home in Lisburn.
McCullagh had met Ms McNally in August 2022 and he or she was pregnant together with his child by November.
Ms McNally died following a violent assault in her dwelling, struggling stab wounds and blows to her head.
Leave a Reply