Natalie McNally suffered horrendous and savage beating, jury is told

Natalie McNally suffered a horrendous and savage beating on the night she was killed, a jury at Belfast Crown Court has heard.

Delivering his closing remarks in the murder trial, a prosecuting barrister said the man accused of killing Ms McNally in Co Armagh had “lied and lied again”.

Charles MacCreanor KC told the jury that Stephen McCullagh had chosen not to give evidence in his own defence but there was an “abundance” of evidence against him.

Ms McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was beaten and stabbed at her home in Lurgan on December 18 2022.

Her partner, Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, is on trial accused of murdering her.

He has denied the charge.

Mr MacCreanor told the jury that the defendant had chosen to rely in his defence on what he had said in police interviews and in a pre-prepared statement.

The barrister said the things he had claimed could not be tested in the trial as he had not given evidence.

He said: “You may feel is that one of the reasons you haven’t heard from him, there’s no answer that he could ever give that could stand up to scrutiny.”

The barrister turned to a YouTube recording of McCullagh playing Grand Theft Auto which was broadcast the night Ms McNally was murdered.

He said: “That was the defendant’s false alibi, of that there can be no doubt.

“His claim that between 6pm and midnight he was going live was a complete fabrication.

“He repeatedly and to different people lied that he was doing a live show.”

The barrister said the evidence in the trial showed McCullagh had prepared the six-hour gaming broadcast four days in advance.

He said: “That period, 6pm to midnight, is the period when Natalie McNally was murdered.”

He said the jury had to decide if that was a coincidence.

The barrister added: “He set up his false alibi. He could not be the murderer, that is what that recording is about.”

Mr MacCreanor said McCullagh had been “caught out” by a police cyber crime report.

He said: “All those lies he told were then exposed.

“Why would you need a false alibi? Because he murdered Natalie McNally.”

He said: “Our case is he has lied and lied again.

“He has lied to Natalie, he has lied to his friends, he has lied to the McNally family, he has lied to police at the scene.”

The barrister said McCullagh had been at the wake for Ms McNally at her family’s home on Christmas Day, the week after she was killed.

He said: “The family literally bring him in, they console him, they support him, they help him.

“What is he telling them? That he was doing a livestream.

“They tell you they saw him as distraught and upset and they believed it all.”

Mr MacCreanor said McCullagh was first confronted by police with the fact that the gaming livestream had been pre-recorded during his eighth interview.

He said McCullagh responded that this was “literally impossible” because the session was on YouTube.

The barrister said: “He tries to hold on to the false alibi and he knew at that stage that he was exposed, he was caught.”

He told the jury that McCullagh then made a pre-prepared statement to police where he said the stream had been recorded days in advance.

In the statement, he said he had been consuming alcohol on the night Ms McNally was killed and had been asleep for most of the evening.

Mr MacCreanor said: “There was an account never heard before up to that time.

“We say that is a further lie, he has to do something.”

The jury were then played some clips from the gaming session.

The barrister said it showed repeated mentions from McCullagh that it was being broadcast live and on the Sunday.

He said: “We get a repeated mention of it being live, overselling it I suggest.

“Does that seem natural to you?”

Mr MacCreanor told the jury that McCullagh had looked online just hours before Ms McNally was killed at Sunday timetables for trains between Lurgan and Lisburn and earlier buses between Dunmurry and Lurgan earlier in the day.

He said: “It just so happens that is the bus the man with the bag gets on.”

The jury was then shown a series of CCTV clips which showed a person with a bag travelling at various locations between Lisburn and Lurgan on the evening Ms McNally was killed.

Mr MacCreanor said on that evening Ms McNally had sent McCullagh a message saying Argentina had won the World Cup final. She had been watching the football match with her family before travelling home.

He said: “Just over half an hour later a figure appears close to his home and starts to walk.”

The barrister said there was “a compelling force to the CCTV”.

He said in some of the clips the person is wearing a hat and a wig.

He added: “We say he has changed his look, his disguise, his clothing as he travelled to Natalie’s home and back again.”

He said one of the disguises, in which the person has a mop of black hair, “bears comparison” to photographs of McCullagh on Instagram.

Mr MacCreanor said: “The person who the prosecution are identifying as the murderer adopted a look which just happened to be a look that he used.

“Is that not unbelievable for that to be a coincidence?”

The footage shows the individual with his face covered getting a bus from Dunmurry to Lurgan on the evening of December 18 2022.

Footage was then shown of the person walking through Lurgan and in the direction of Ms McNally’s house.

The barrister said the prosecution case is that the defendant changed clothes close to Silverwood Court, near where Ms McNally lived.

Further footage then shows a person leaving the area and getting into a taxi in Lurgan.

Mr McCreanor said the taxi drove to McCullagh’s house.

He said: “We say there is a sequence and there is a compulsion to this and it knits together and it ties together.”

After lunch, the barrister told the jury that McCullagh had texted and phoned Ms McNally several times later the same night and again the following day.

He then went to her home on the evening of December 19 and phoned 999.

He said: “She had sustained a horrendous beating, there is no question about that, sustained and savage.

“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.”

The barrister said McCullagh had claimed in his police statement that there was no physical evidence against him.

He added: “There is an abundance of evidence that all links in and ties together.”

Mr MacCreanor concluded by telling the jury that Ms McNally had logged into YouTube on the night she was killed to watch part of McCullagh’s gaming broadcast.

He said: “It is for you to decide, have you any doubt that he is sitting, drinking at home when this recording is going out or that he is making his way to her house to kill her.”

The defence will deliver final submissions on Thursday.