Stephen McCullagh Convicted of Murdering Pregnant Natalie McNally

A jury at Belfast Crown Court convicted Stephen McCullagh, 36, of murdering his pregnant partner, Natalie McNally, 32, in her Lurgan home on December 18, 2022. The verdict, reached after two hours of deliberation on Monday, followed a five-week trial that exposed McCullagh's elaborate digital alibi and the brutal nature of the attack, which claimed the lives of Ms. McNally and her 15-week-old unborn son, Dean.

Prosecutors described the killing as a planned and premeditated act. Ms. McNally, who was beaten, strangled and stabbed, suffered multiple fatal injuries, including at least five blows to the head. McCullagh, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, had met Ms. McNally on a dating app in August 2022, and she became pregnant by November. Evidence presented in court suggested the motive stemmed from McCullagh accessing her phone and discovering messages she had exchanged with other men, some explicit, in the weeks before her death. Witnesses testified that Ms. McNally had expressed intentions to end the relationship after the new year.

To cover his movements, McCullagh prerecorded a six-hour YouTube video of himself playing video games, including Grand Theft Auto and Robot Wars, four...