LURGAN — Stephen McCullagh was sentenced to 31 years in prison for the murder of his pregnant ex-partner, Natalie McNally, in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. McCullagh stabbed, strangled, and bludgeoned McNally at her home on 18 December 2022.
McNally was 32 years old and 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Mr Justice Kinney, the trial judge, stated that McCullagh intended to kill both McNally and their unborn child. During sentencing, he described the attack as “a frenzied assault, which was characterised by its excessive and gratuitous violence.” He said McCullagh “planned this murder in remorseless detail” and added that the killing was “cold-blooded and calculated.”
Justice Kinney said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that, after the attack, McNally’s face had been placed in a dog bowl as an act of punishment and humiliation. The court heard that McCullagh wore a disguise and gloves on his way to McNally’s home. He also prerecorded a six-hour session of himself playing Grand Theft Auto and uploaded it to YouTube that same day to fabricate an alibi.
During the prerecorded livestream, McCullagh wore a Santa hat, ate snacks, drank Guinness, and said, “I am not leaving the house tonight.” The video was intended to make it appear he was at his home 17 miles away from Lurgan. Police initially arrested McCullagh after discovering McNally’s body but released him upon learning of the livestream. After determining the stream was prerecorded, authorities re-arrested and charged him.
Catherine Kierans, assistant director in the Public Prosecution Service, described the case as “chilling” and said, “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.” She called McCullagh’s livestream alibi an “elaborate charade” and said his decision to leave a recording phone at the McNally family home to spy on them was “particularly insidious and shocking.”
McCullagh was convicted in March after a five-week trial. He had suggested a previous boyfriend of McNally’s committed the murder and was allowed to attend her wake, where he spent extensive time alone with her coffin. Outside court, McNally’s father, Noel McNally, said the family endures “unimaginable pain and grief.” He added, “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.”