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A YouTuber who set up a six-hour stream as an alibi to get away with murdering his pregnant partner has been jailed for at least 31 years.
Natalie McNally, 32, had been 15 weeks’ pregnant with their son when she was beaten, strangled and stabbed at her home in Lurgan in December 2022.
Stephen McCullough, 36, was found guilty of her murder following a five-week trial at Belfast Crown Court earlier this year.
He claimed he had been live streaming himself playing computer games on his YouTube channel at the time of the killing, but experts discovered the six-hour stream had been filmed four days before and broadcast as live on December 18.
The judge said the staged livestream had been ‘carefully curated to appear as if it was streaming live and to provide the defendant a carefully planned complete alibi to the murder’.
McCullagh then mounted a ‘concerted effort’ to pass the blame for murdering Ms McNally to her ex-boyfriend, the judge said.
He also spent time with Natalie’s family after the killing, presenting as distraught while ‘spying’ on them.
At his sentencing hearing today, the court heard Natalie’s family ‘brought him in and comforted him’ when he turned up to her wake on Christmas Day.
They even left him ‘to spend extensive time alone with Natalie, ostensibly to grieve for her’, the judge said.
Judge Mr Justice Kinney said it was ‘difficult to find words’ to describe the ‘abhorrence’ of the killing.
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‘The defendant did not just kill Natalie McNally, her unborn child also died as a result of the murderous assault,’ he said.
‘The defendant was fully aware that Natalie was pregnant. He intended to kill her and he knew that her baby, at such an early stage of the pregnancy, would have no chance of surviving the attack.’
Ordering McCullagh to stand before he set the 31-year prison term, Justice Kinney said the sentence passed ‘cannot possibly reflect the value of Natalie’s life, or indeed that of her unborn child, Dean’ or meet the family’s sense of ‘grief and loss’.
‘Stephen McCullagh, you have committed a brutal and senseless murder,’ he said.
‘You planned this murder in remorseless detail. 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, as evidenced by the extensive planning leading up to the murder and your actions afterwards. Your behaviour towards the McNally family showed your absolute determination to cover your tracks.’
Senior prosecutor Catherine Kierans said afterwards that she has never before seen a case of domestic murder with ‘such a level of premeditation’.
Describing the ‘very unusual case’, she said: ‘At the heart of it was the brutal murder of a very young woman who was pregnant, and that is unusual in society.
‘I know there’s a lot of talk about domestic violence, but we’re not so immune that a murder doesn’t still shock and horrify everybody.
‘So, we’re dealing with a domestic murder, then you’ve got these really unusual features, the level of planning, the premeditation here was off the scale.
‘An absolutely calculated murder planned at least for several days in advance, probably longer.
‘You’ve then got the framing of an innocent person and saying that they committed the murder, and so it had these unusual features, and probably the one that’s gathered most attention is the fact that McCullagh used a YouTube recording as his alibi in the case, a six-hour video that he claimed he’d been making at the time that this murder was carried out.
‘He maintained that lie for several weeks through a lot of police interviews until finally police experts were able to discern that this was not a live video, he had pre-recorded it and played it out on that Sunday, the 18th of December, and once police had cracked that, even McCullagh had to accept then that it was not a live recording.
‘He still maintained that he had not committed the murder, and that in fact it had been Natalie’s ex-partner.’
Ms Kierans said the case was ‘unprecedented’ in her experience.
She added: ‘I have been a lawyer for 27 years. 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.
‘The most insidious aspect, which was the ingratiating himself with the bereaved family and spying on them, recording their private conversation, really shocking aspects to this case.’
Natalie McNally murder: Key events leading to jailing of her killer
Stephen McCullagh has been told he must serve at least 31 years in prison for the murder of Natalie McNally on December 18 2022 at her home in Lurgan.
Here is a timeline of key events:
– August 7 2022: Stephen McCullagh sends his first WhatsApp message to Natalie McNally after they made contact on the online dating app Bumble. His first message read ‘Hey Nat, it’s that robot weirdo from Bumble’ and they discussed meeting for their first date that week.
Over the next 133 days the two were to exchange hundreds of messages. The prosecution in McCullagh’s murder trial said that he had also accessed Ms McNally’s phone and saw messages she had exchanged with other men.
– October: McCullagh meets Ms McNally’s family for the first time.
– November: The McNally family are told that the couple are expecting a baby.
– December 14/15: McCullagh pre-records The Violent Night Christmas Live Gaming Stream. The six hour and four minute gaming session shows McCullagh playing Grand Theft Auto while drinking alcohol, swearing and at one point repeatedly shouting at a character in the game to die. During the session McCullagh makes repeated mention that it is being broadcast live on the Sunday (December 18).
– December 16/17: McCullagh tells friends he will broadcast a gaming session live on Sunday evening.
– December 18: Ms McNally is in McCullagh’s home in Woodland Gardens in Lisburn while he is searching timetables for a bus from Dunmurry to Lurgan and a later train from Lurgan back to Lisburn. Ms McNally later leaves McCullagh’s house to go to her parents’ home to watch the World Cup final between Argentina and France before returning to her own house at Silverwood Green in Lurgan.
4pm: McCullagh posts an advert on YouTube about his ‘live’ gaming session.
5.57pm: McCullagh messages Ms McNally saying that he is ‘off to stream the night away’. She replies: ‘Good luck, I might have a peek at your livestream later.’
6pm: The pre-recorded livestream begins. McCullagh’s telephone becomes inactive.
6.36pm: A man is captured on CCTV walking with a bag close to McCullagh’s house. The prosecution in the trial said the man was McCullagh.
7.36pm: Bus CCTV shows the man with his face covered travelling from Dunmurry to Lurgan. After getting off the bus in Lurgan, he is tracked on a number of cameras travelling down Market Street towards William Street, Lough Road and into Silverwood Green, where Ms McNally lives.
8.24pm: Ms McNally logs in to YouTube to watch part of McCullagh’s livestream gaming session.
8.51pm: McCullagh enters Ms McNally’s house.
9.31pm: McCullagh leaves Ms McNally’s house.
9.49pm: A man is seen on CCTV getting into a taxi near Fa Joe’s bar in Lurgan.
11.12pm: The taxi arrives at McCullagh’s house at Woodlands in Lisburn. He is seen on CCTV throwing two items over a hedge.
11.16pm: McCullagh’s phone is unlocked and becomes active.
– December 19:
12.05am: The recording of the gaming broadcast is manually stopped.
12.08am: McCullagh messages Ms McNally.
5.05pm: McCullagh messages Ms McNally ‘Are you ok?’.
5.25pm: He messages ‘Getting a little worried, let me know you are safe’.
6.55pm: McCullagh orders a KFC.
9.07pm: He messages Ms McNally stating he is ‘very concerned now’.
9.59pm: McCullagh arrives at Ms McNally’s house in Lurgan and makes a 10-minute 999 call. He tells emergency services ‘Please come as soon as you can, she’s pregnant, she’s cold’. He is asked by the call handler: ‘Is the patient breathing?’ and responds tearfully ‘No, she’s gone’, adding ‘there’s blood everywhere’. He tells the call handler Ms McNally was 15 weeks’ pregnant.
The trial heard that the victim had suffered a ‘horrendous beating’. Prosecutor Charles MacCreanor KC said: ‘Three stabs to the neck, multiple traumatic blows to her head. Injuries consistent with throttling and choking of her neck. I’m sorry to say it, left with her face in a dog bowl, like an animal’.
McCullagh is questioned by police about the death. In his initial interview he tells police he was doing a livestream at the time of her death and that he believes Ms McNally’s ex-boyfriend is the ‘only one that would harm her’.
He is asked by police ‘Had you anything whatsoever to do with the death of Natalie?’ to which he replied: ‘No comment’. His solicitor tells him: ‘Sorry, I think you could answer that.’ McCullagh tells police ‘No, no, no comment.’
– December 20:
7.34am: McCullagh is released by police.
– December 24: The McNally family are told McCullagh is no longer a suspect for the murder.
– December 25: McCullagh attends a wake for Ms McNally at her parents’ home on Christmas Day.
– January 26 2023: McCullagh visits the McNally family home again. When he departs the house, he leaves his phone behind and makes a 39-minute recording of the family speaking. He returns later to retrieve the phone.
– January 28: More than 1,000 people attend a rally in Lurgan in memory of Ms McNally. McCullagh attends the event. A video montage of images of Ms McNally is played and the crowd is told it was put together by McCullagh, ‘Natalie’s loving partner’.
– January 31: McCullagh is arrested again by police.
– February 1: During police interview McCullagh replies ‘no comment’ to a series of questions about Ms McNally’s murder. He is confronted for the first time with evidence that his gaming session had been pre-recorded. A detective tells him that his devices had been examined and there was no user generated activity during the hours when he claimed to be broadcasting live. He answers: ‘That is literally impossible because you can see it on YouTube.’
Following the interview McCullagh provides a statement to police in which he says the gaming session had been pre-recorded.
He added: ‘I think it is obvious the true killer of Natalie has left a clear circumstantial trail to link me to the murder.’
– February 2: McCullagh is charged with the murder of Ms McNally.
– February 23 2026: McCullagh goes on trial for the murder of Ms McNally at Belfast Crown Court.
– March 23: McCullagh is found guilty by the jury.
– June 3: McCullagh is told he must serve at least 31 years in jail before he can be considered for release.
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