The trial of a man charged with the murder of a pregnant woman in Co Armagh a week before Christmas in 2022 has been told he made a fake 999 call to emergency services as part of an elaborate cover story.
Natalie McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed at her home in Silverwood Green in Lurgan.
Her boyfriend at the time, 36-year-old Stephen McCullagh from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, is charged with her murder. He denies the charge.
During the opening of the prosecution case at Belfast Crown Court this morning, the jury of six men and six women was told that the defendant was the father of Ms McNally’s unborn child.
Barrister Charles MacCreanor KC described her death as “a planned, calculated and pre-meditated murder” that Mr McCullagh “hoped to get away with”.
36-year-old Stephen McCullagh from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn denies the charge of murder
He told the court that Ms McNally had suffered three stab wounds to her neck, compression of her neck and at least five heavy blows to the head, which caused serious blunt force trauma.
The lawyer said the defendant had told police he had been livestreaming for six hours on his YouTube channel at the time of the murder, which is believed to have been between 8.50pm and 9.30pm on Sunday 18 December 2022.
But Mr MacCreanor said Mr McCullagh had “pedalled a false alibi” as PSNI cyber crime experts had determined that the footage had been recorded days earlier and then played on the night the murder took place.
A 999 call to emergency services made by the defendant on the evening of 19 December 2022, 24 hours after Ms McNally was killed, was played in court.
During the ten-minute call, Mr McCullagh was heard telling the call handler that Ms McNally was pregnant, that she was “cold” and that there was “blood everywhere”. He urged emergency services to “please come as soon as you can”.
He could be heard crying and sounding upset.
However, the barrister said the prosecution case is that the call was fake and part of “an act” that was “part of his plan to commit the murder and get away with it”.
The jury was told that Mr McCullagh had made his way from his home in Lisburn to Ms McNally’s home in Lurgan by public transport and on foot during the time he claimed to have been livestreaming.
The prosecution claims the defendant changed his clothes and appearance during his journey in order to avoid detection.
The trial continues.