A YouTuber is on trial, accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and then trying to cover it up with what prosecutors call a fake act.
Natalie McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed in her home in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. It happened a week before Christmas in 2022. Stephen McCullagh, 36, from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, has denied her murder.
But at Belfast Crown Court, the prosecution said he carefully planned the attack and tried to trick everyone afterward.
The court heard that Natalie died sometime between 8:50 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 18, 2022. Prosecuting barrister Charles MacCreanor KC told the jury that this was a “planned, calculated and premeditated” murder. He said McCullagh hoped he would “get away with it.”
Natalie was pregnant at the time, and the court heard that McCullagh was the father of her unborn child.
According to the prosecution, McCullagh created a cover story. He was known on YouTube as Votesaxon07. That Sunday evening, he appeared to be livestreaming himself playing video games for six hours.
But prosecutors say the stream was not live at all. They claim he had pre-recorded the video earlier and broadcast it as if it were happening in real time.
While the video was playing, the prosecution argues, McCullagh left his home and traveled to Lurgan.
CCTV footage was shown in court. It showed a man getting on a bus in Dunmurray and later getting off in Lurgan. The man wore a beanie-style hat. Underneath it was what one lawyer described as a “mop of black hair.” His face was mostly covered.
The footage then showed the man walking toward Natalie’s house.
The prosecution said McCullagh had searched for bus times to Lurgan on his devices. They also said his phone was unlocked a few minutes after a taxi moved off later that night.
More footage was shown of a taxi. A figure was seen getting into it. The taxi dropped someone off in the “area just outside McCullagh’s house in Lisburn” around 11:00 p.m.
Prosecutors suggested that after the attack, he may have changed his clothes before taking the taxi home.
In court, Mr MacCreanor pointed out something else. He said the “mop of black hair” seen on the bus looked similar to a wig McCullagh had worn before. He had posted a photo of himself wearing that wig as part of a dress-up costume on Instagram.
When this was put to McCullagh in a police interview, he denied it. The court heard his reply. He said: “It seems that the suspect did take a taxi to my house, I have no idea who this person was, but I think that it is obvious that the true killer of Natalie has left a clear circumstantial trail to link me to the murder.
“I have no idea where they went after they entered my property, but they could easily have jumped the fence and made their way without being seen.”
The prosecution says this explanation makes no sense. They argue that the livestream was fake and that it was all part of a plan.
Mr MacCreanor also told the jury about something else that happened after the killing. In the days that followed, McCullagh left his phone at Natalie’s family home while it was recording. The lawyer told jurors it was up to them to decide whether that was done on purpose.
The next evening, Monday, December 19, McCullagh made a 999 call. The recording was played in court. His voice sounded upset. He was sobbing and begging for help. Please come as soon as you can,” he said.
He told police that the last time he had seen Natalie was on Sunday afternoon.
But the prosecution said this call was not real emotion. Mr MacCreanor told the jury: “On the prosecution case, this call is false, it’s an act, it’s put on by him, part of his plan to do the murder and get away with it.”
During the call, the operator guided him through CPR. McCullagh followed instructions as he waited for paramedics. The operator told him to “keep going” and said he was giving her the best chance.
Paramedic Graham Thompson was the first witness to give evidence. He said he was the first into the house after the 999 call. He described seeing a very pale woman lying on the floor at the top of the stairs, which was the living area of the home.
“A lot of blood had been lost,” he said. He also noticed that her hands and lips were purple and blue.
He saw a man, later identified as McCullagh, on his knees performing CPR. The paramedic described him as “visibly upset.” Mr Thompson said he had to tell him to stop because there was no hope of resuscitation at that stage.
Constable Archibald also gave evidence. She said when she arrived, the front door was open. She noticed “quite a strong foul smell.”
She saw McCullagh and described him as visibly distraught and crying. She took him to a police car, both to give him privacy and to allow emergency workers space to do their job.
“I had a gentleman who was visibly distraught, very upset, who had just witnessed something very traumatic, so my initial response at that point was to console him as best as I could,” she told the court.
She said he told her he did not really speak to his family but wanted to call a friend for support.
She also recalled something he kept repeating. “He kept saying ‘Why? Why my Natalie, why my Natalie, and who would do such a thing’, and I do remember thinking that seems a bit odd because at this point it wasn’t confirmed to being treated as a murder or even as suspicious at this point,” she said.
Another officer, Constable Feeley, told the court he saw a knife around three or four feet behind Natalie’s body. He described seeing “a large amount of blood” around her, on the walls and going into the living room.
He also described McCullagh as “distraught, overcome with grief, crying and nearly falling about the place.”
Earlier, the court had already heard details about Natalie’s injuries. Mr MacCreanor said her cause of death involved compression of her neck, “suggestive of finger tips grasping.”
She also suffered three stab wounds to her neck caused by a bladed weapon. There were five cuts to the back, top, and right side of her head. These injuries were “in keeping with having sustained at least five heavy blows.”
The prosecutor said any one of these injuries could have caused her death on its own.
The image painted in court was a violent attack inside her home. At the top of the stairs, in what should have been a safe space, Natalie lay surrounded by blood. Paramedics could see immediately that she was gone.
The prosecution says the livestream, the bus trip, the taxi ride, the wig, the 999 call, and even the tears were all parts of one plan. They say McCullagh created a story that he was at home playing video games while someone else carried out the crime.
They also said he tried to suggest that an ex-partner of Ms McNally’s was responsible. The court heard that he told police “someone had knocked 10 bells out of her.”
Now it is up to the jury to decide what is true.
On Monday morning, as the trial began at Belfast Crown Court, McCullagh sat in the dock. Natalie’s loved ones watched from the public gallery. The courtroom was quiet as the evidence was laid out step by step.
The trial continues.
