A YouTuber who set up a false alibi by livestreaming a video-gaming session online has been sentenced to 31 years in prison for the “cold-blooded and calculated” murder of his pregnant partner.
Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Lisburn, County Antrim, showed no emotion on Wednesday as he was sentenced at Belfast crown court for the murder of Natalie McNally, a crime that chilled Northern Ireland.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Kinney, said it was “difficult to find words” to describe his “abhorrence” at the brutal attack. McCullagh stabbed, strangled and bludgeoned McMcNally, 32, at her home in Lurgan on 18 December 2022.
“You planned this murder in remorseless detail,” the judge said. “You attacked someone you profess to love in a frenzied assault, which was characterised by its excessive and gratuitous violence. Despite that frenzy, the killing was cold-blooded and calculated.”
While the attack unfolded, a prerecorded session of McCullagh playing Grand Theft Auto ran on his YouTube channel to give the impression he was spending the night at his own home 17 miles away. Recorded four nights earlier, he wore a Santa hat, ate snacks, drank Guinness and made jokes. “I am not leaving the house tonight,” he said in the broadcast.
A prosecutor said the case was chilling. “I’ve never seen a case like this in terms of domestic murder with such a level of premeditation, planning, thinking of every possible aspect, the wearing of a disguise, the forensic awareness, the framing of the ex-partner,” said Catherine Kierans, assistant director in the Public Prosecution Service. She called the alibi an “elaborate charade”.
After the discovery of McNally’s body, police arrested McCullagh, but they released him after learning of the broadcast. He suggested a previous boyfriend had committed the murder. McCullagh, appearing grief-stricken, was welcomed at McNally’s wake and given time alone with the coffin to say goodbye.
When police established that the purported livestream was prerecorded, officers re-arrested and charged McCullagh. He was convicted in March after a five-week trial that heard he had worn a disguise and gloves on his way to McNally’s home.
The judge said McCullagh had intended to kill not just his girlfriend, who was 15 weeks pregnant, but their unborn child. He said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that McNally’s face had also been put in a dog bowl after the attack, in an effort to punish and humiliate her.
The judge noted that in the days after the crime, McCullagh had presented himself to McNally’s family as if he were distraught and shocked. “When he first arrived at the house on Christmas Day, during Natalie’s wake, the family brought him in and comforted him. They allowed him to spend extensive time alone with Natalie, ostensibly to grieve for her.”
On a later occasion McCullagh left his phone at the McNally family home and returned later, claiming to have forgotten it. It had been recording, apparently to check if the family suspected him.
Kierans, the prosecutor, said McCullagh’s effort to ingratiate himself and spy on the bereaved family was particularly insidious and shocking. She paid tribute to McNally. “She had everything to live for, a very intelligent woman, vibrant, full of life, full of excitement about her little baby coming.”
Speaking outside court, McNally’s father, Noel, spoke of the family’s “unimaginable pain and grief” and thanked police and prosecutors for bringing the murderer to justice.
“Today is not a celebration of the sentence handed down, as Bernadette, my boys and myself are serving a life sentence since the murder of our beloved Natalie, but hopefully it will serve as a deterrent to help stop violence against women and girls in this country.”