For 44 days, Stephen McCullagh thought he’d gotten away with murder.
The lengths the now convicted killer went to in a bid to conceal his sickening crime both before and after murdering his pregnant partner Natalie McNally were extraordinary.
Now 36, the YouTuber from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn almost got away with it. Almost.
In the 44 days between beating, stabbing and strangling his 15-week pregnant partner in her own home and his re-arrest, McCullagh attended her wake but not her funeral and also went to a rally in Lurgan Park.
During the rally on January 28, 2023 a video was played and the crowd were told it was put together by her ‘loving partner’.
As well as continuing to peddle lies that he was live-streaming on the evening of her murder – which McCullagh believed gave him a cast-iron alibi – he had also covertly recorded the McNally family on his phone two days before the rally.
The so-called livestream became a central piece of evidence during the trial at Belfast Crown Court which spanned five weeks and concluded on Monday with the jury returning a unanimously guilty verdict.
Natalie was brutally murdered in her Silverwood Green home in Lurgan between 8.50pm and 9.30pm on Sunday December 18, 2022.
The law graduate and Translink worker returned home after spending the day with her family watching the World Cup final between Argentina and France.
That same evening, McCullagh – who would later falsely claim he had been live-streaming from 6pm to midnight – left his home with murder on his mind.
With his phone left at home and wearing dark clothing and a face mask, McCullagh boarded a bus from Dunmurry to Lurgan at 7.36pm which he paid for in cash.
After arriving in Lurgan, he walked to Natalie’s home where he carried out what the prosecution described as a “pre-planned, calculated, pre-meditated murder”.
Natalie, who was 15 weeks’ pregnant, sustained three stab wounds to her neck, five lacerations to her head caused by blunt force trauma, and was strangled.
McCullagh then walked back into Lurgan but, having missed the last train back to Lisburn, he took a taxi which dropped him off right outside his house at 11.13pm.
Minutes after returning home, he unlocked his phone and just after midnight he sent a message to Natalie asking if she had seen any of his stream.
This, despite having left the mother of his unborn son lying dead and face-down in her dog River’s bowl.
FALSE CONCERN
He continued to message Natalie throughout Monday December 19, 2022 and even enlisted the help of his friend Anne McCullough, telling her he couldn’t get hold of Natalie and was worried about her.
McCullagh even tried to pursue Anne to come with him to Natalie’s home on the Monday evening, expressing concerns that she was diabetic and may have taken a hypo – a medical incident when blood glucose drops too low.
Anne declined the offer, so instead McCullagh drove to Lurgan and at 9.59pm he called 999, hysterically telling the operator “she’s cold” and “there’s blood everywhere”.
He was told to perform CPR, and upon the arrival of the emergency services, McCullagh was spoken to by the PSNI and arrested.
What came next with McCullagh was twofold. Not only did he put his alibi into play, he also pointed the finger of blame at an ex-boyfriend of Natalie’s.
ALIBI LIE
Following his arrest, McCullagh told them he was live-streaming. Entitled The Violent Night Christmas Live Gaming Stream, it appeared on his YouTube channel under his username VoteSaxon07.
He was released from police custody on December 20, 2022 and four days later was de-suspected.
Also arrested was Natalie’s innocent ex-boyfriend and as he also had an alibi, he was released from custody.
As the investigation into Natalie’s murder proceeded, police undertook an extensive trawl of CCTV, as well as the examination of telephones.
This led to McCullagh’s re-arrest on January 31, 2023.
LIVESTREAM TRUTH
Following a forensic examination of his computer, experts from the PSNI‘s cyber team determined that this six-hour stream was not in fact live and had been recorded some days before.
The cyber cops were also able to prove that between the hours of the so-called livestream, there had been no user activity on the computer.
In those 44 days leading up to his re-arrest, McCullagh continued to peddle his sick lies to his friends and to the McNally family.
He attended Natalie’s wake in the McNally home on Christmas evening where he was treated with kindness.
When she gave evidence, Natalie’s mother Bernie told the jury: “He started to tell me how he found Natalie in the house.
“He said she looked like she got a quare doing and he would like to get his hands on them, that sort of thing.
“He said her face was in the dog bowl and it was full of blood. That stuck in my head.”
VILE BEHAVIOUR
During another visit to the McNally’s home on January 7, 2023, McCullagh and a cousin of Natalie’s went out the back for a smoke.
When he gave evidence, Gavin Haddock said McCullagh took his phone out, started looking at his stream from December 18 on YouTube then fast-forwarded it into the middle.
Mr Haddock said McCullagh then said to him, ‘This is around the time that Natalie would have been murdered and I should have been there to protect Natalie. No man would have gotten past me’.
When the evidence of lying about the livestream was put to McCullagh by police following his re-arrest, he finally admitted it had been pre-recorded.
The lies about Natalie’s innocent ex, however, continued right up to last week when the defence closed its case to the jury.
He said her face was in the dog bowl and it was full of blood. That stuck in my head
Natalie’s mother Bernie
McCullagh also denied being the ‘suspect’ caught on CCTV plodding though Lisburn and Lurgan, or the male getting into a taxi wearing a distinctive beanie hat with a mop of curly black hair underneath, which was similar to a look used by McCullagh on his socials.
The six men and six women of the jury rejected McCullagh’s claims of innocence and found him guilty of murdering a much-loved woman described by her family as “inspirational”.
Her killer was handed a life sentence on Monday by Mr Justice Kinney and will find out in May how long he will spend behind bars before he considered eligible for release.