Author photo, BBC/ Getty Images
Cold-blooded, violent and bizarre – if the plan Stephen McCullagh devised to kill his pregnant partner had been the plot of one of his video games, it might have been dismissed as too far-fetched. This murder took place in Northern Ireland.
But from the blogger’s first court appearance in early 2023, it was clear that he had not only killed Natalie McNally, but had carefully constructed an elaborate house of cards alibi to avoid justice.
He cried when police arrived at the scene, responding to his 999 call, and said Natalie had been killed by her ex-partner. He was with her family in the days and weeks after her death and even tried to spy on their conversations.
Warning: the article contains offensive language
Author photo, Pacemaker
And, of course, there was the alibi – a six-hour YouTube stream of a computer game the night Natalie was found dead. It turned out to be a pre-recorded broadcast.
For more than a month after the murder, McCullagh, 36, believed he had been cleared of suspicion in her death.
But three years after he was charged, a court exposed his lies to a jury.
What happened the night Natalee died?
On 18 December 2022, at around 4pm UK time, McCullagh informed tens of thousands of his subscribers that he would be broadcasting the game live on YouTube from 6pm.
The title of the broadcast was “Night of Violence.” When the stream started, it showed McCullagh going through the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Robot Wars. He was drinking, smoking viis and commenting on the game on camera.
He told viewers that he wouldn’t be able to interact or respond to comments – as streamers usually do – due to technical issues.
But there was no live stream at all.
A digital forensics analyst told the court that evidence suggested the six-hour game broadcast had been recorded four days earlier.
The analyst also said the pre-recorded file was stopped at 00:05 on 19 December and then deleted. It was during the broadcast that McCullagh killed Natalee. McCullagh’s YouTube account was later deleted by the platform.
Although the advert was removed from the game stream, it remained on McCullagh’s account throughout the trial.
“Gotta take it down.”
Parts of the stream were broadcast for the jury during the trial and contained references to violence, crime and relationships.
At the time Natalee is believed to have been attacked, McCullagh was playing a Grand Theft Auto mission where you have to kill a woman. During this, he sings: “I gotta kill this fight, I gotta kill this s**t, I gotta take her out”.
After about 10 minutes he says, “Abso-fucking-not-ally, abso-fucking Natalie”. This is the only time he brings up her name during the stream.
After a few minutes, he takes a break, during which a poster for the James Bond film “No Time to Die” briefly appears on the screen. What McCullagh meant by these references is not explained – he did not testify at the trial.
Author photo, BBC / YouTube
Brutal murder
Hours before the recording of McCullagh’s broadcast was published on YouTube, Natalie McNally was at her parents’ home watching the Champion final.
She and McCullagh exchanged messages just before he posted the stream. He said he was going to “hold back all night,” and she said she was going to “look into it.”
A little later Natalie returned to her house, it was around 7pm.
Meanwhile, McCullagh walked about three kilometres from his home in Lisburn to Dunmarry, where he caught a bus to Lurgan, 30 kilometres away.
He was wearing dark clothing, gloves and the lower part of his face was covered, he had a green shopping bag.
Earlier, he had been looking at bus and train timetables.
When he arrived in Lurgan, where Natalie lived, he walked about a kilometre to her home, entered it and brutally murdered her.
Police say the murder happened between 8.50pm and 9.30pm. The girl was stabbed and at least five hard blows to the head and was strangled.
McCullagh’s return journey was carefully recorded by CCTV cameras.
Before boarding the vehicle, he changed his clothes.
Prosecutors noticed pictures of McCullagh from his social media accounts showing him wearing a black hat and wig, which looks very similar to the man in the video returned by Lurgan town centre.
The investigation suggests he was about to return home by bus or train but it was too late. He spotted a parked taxi. He persuaded the driver that he had a fare ticket but the route had changed and he needed to get to Lisburn.
When he got home, he stopped the broadcast and deleted the recorded file.
McCullagh’s arrest and release
McCullagh then sent more text messages to Natalie and his girlfriend Ann’s phone to confirm his alibi.
In the messages, he hints that Natalie may be angry with him for drinking during her pregnancy and that she may have a problem with diabetes.
He also posts a video review of a toy lightsaber from Star Wars. The next evening he goes to Lurgan again, ostensibly to check on Natalie, from whom there have been no messages for almost 24 hours.
He calls 999 from Natalie’s house, sobbing. Within a 10-minute call, the emergency services record a report that the women is “dead” and “through bleeding”.
He performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Prosecutors told the court it was all a simulation. McCullagh told police at the scene that he believes it was “Natalee’s ex-partner who treated her aggressively.”
He also told law enforcement about his live broadcast the night before. He was arrested at the scene but later released. Police accepted his alibi and on Christmas Eve informed McCullagh that he was no longer a suspect.
Natalie’s former partner, whom McCullagh had accused, was also arrested and questioned – he also had an alibi and was dismissed.
That alibi was detailed in court during McCullagh’s trial. Jurors were shown a video of him sleeping in front of the TV at the World Cup final.
Author photo, Pacemaker
Over the next six weeks, McCullagh plays out the role of a bloke in grief.
He attends a girl’s funeral where he is allowed to be alone with her. He visits her grave. He writes to her brothers regularly. He makes a video montage from old home videos that he shows at the wake.
He even leaves his phone at the McNally family home to record their private conversations. Thirty-nine minutes later, he returns to their house to say he forgot his phone.
He claims the recording was caused by a glitch in his phone, but there was evidence at the trial that he had previously recorded his ex-partner’s private counselling session.
Why did he do this?
It is impossible to state McCullagh’s exact motive. He denied murder, gave no explanation for the pre-recorded live broadcast and did not give evidence during the trial.
But the court heard that in the months before her death Natalia had been texting other men. Some of those messages were sexually explicit, and she told one of those men a week before her death that she was thinking of ending her relationship with McCullagh in the new year.
The inquest heard that McCullagh had accessed Natalie’s phone and read these messages.
It was also reported that he had previously been arrested for assaulting an ex-girlfriend after he read a message on her phone.
But jealousy partly explains the extent of the murder plan McCullagh devised.
It was a carefully and coldly thought out plan, but in the end it fell apart like a house of cards.