Stephen McCullagh, the man who staged a fake YouTube gaming livestream to create an alibi for the murder of his pregnant partner Natalie McNally, has lodged an appeal against his 31-year minimum sentence. The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland confirmed receipt of the appeal notice.
Brutal Murder and Fake Alibi
McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, was convicted by a jury earlier this year for the murder of 32-year-old Natalie McNally, who was 15 weeks pregnant at the time. The attack occurred at her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in December 2022. Justice Mr Kinney described it as a “brutal and frenzied attack” and noted that the staged livestream was an “integral” part of McCullagh’s murder plan.
On the night of the murder, McCullagh broadcast a six-hour video of himself playing computer games on his YouTube channel, claiming it was live. However, police forensic analysis revealed the footage had actually been recorded four days earlier and was replayed to appear live on December 18, 2022. The judge stated the livestream was “carefully curated to appear as if it was streaming live and to provide the defendant a carefully planned complete alibi to the murder.”
Sentence and Impact
When determining the tariff, the judge assessed McCullagh’s culpability as “extremely high.” He remarked, “The defendant did not just kill Natalie McNally, her unborn child also died as a result of the murderous assault.” The minimum 31-year term was set, but the judge acknowledged that “this sentence cannot possibly reflect the value of Natalie’s life, or indeed that of her unborn child, Dean,” nor fully meet the family’s sense of “grief and loss.”
McCullagh had denied the murder to detectives, maintaining that he was livestreaming at the time of her death. The appeal against the sentence has now been formally lodged with the relevant authorities.
