The former partner of Natalie McNally carried out a “planned, calculated, premeditated murder” that he “hoped to get away with”, a jury has heard at the opening day of the trial.
Stephen McCullagh (36), from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, Co Antrim, has denied her murder.
Natalie McNally (32) was stabbed at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, on the night of December 18th, 2022, when she was 15 weeks pregnant.
On Monday, McCullagh cried in the dock when the 999 call he made from Natalie McNally’s home was played to the jury of six men and six women at Belfast Crown Court.
During the 10-minute call, which was made on Monday, December 19th, 2022, McCullagh screamed to the operator: “Please come as soon as you can, she’s pregnant, she’s cold. There’s blood everywhere.”
The jury listened to McCullagh being instructed to carry out CPR.
He told the call handler that Natalie McNally was 15 weeks pregnant.
“We have a scan tomorrow,” he said.
The McNally family and supporters filled the public gallery of Court 13 at the Laganside court complex.
Towards the end of the 999 call, a dog was heard barking as paramedics arrived.
Earlier, the prosecution barrister, Charles MacCreanor, told the jury that the cause of death was found to have involved compression of her neck, “suggestive of finger tips grasping”.
The murder was carried out between 8.50pm and 9.30pm.
Natalie McNally suffered “serious and multiple fatal injuries”.
There were three stab wounds to her neck, caused by a “bladed weapon” and five lacerations to the back, top and right of her head, the court heard.
These injuries were in keeping with her having sustained “at least five heavy blows” to the head.
“We say that this is a planned, calculated, premeditated murder by the defendant,” MacCreanor told the court. “One which he hoped to get away with.”
Jurors were told that McCullagh was the father of the deceased’s unborn child.
The defendant made the 999 call at 9.55pm.
The prosecution barrister described the call as “false”.
“It’s an act, it’s put on by him, part of his plan to do the murder and get away with it,” MacCreanor added.
Jurors were shown a map of Natalie McNally’s house, with a drawing of a figure at the top of the stairs.
Her body was found at the top of the stairs, which was the living area of the home.
“It’s clearly apparent to paramedics that Natalie McNally is dead, everything is consistent with this being an attack upon her, presence of blood and the visible injuries,” the court heard.
McCullagh was described by police as being “distraught and overcome”.
“Again, we say this is all part of an act, a front,” the prosecution barrister said.
The court was also shown footage of McCullagh posting an advertisement for a six-hour stream of an online game he was hosting and live streaming on the night of the murder.
It was called The Violent Night Christmas Live Gaming Stream.
The prosecution barrister said the stream was “not in fact live at all”.
“What was presented as live was not. The live stream was recorded some days before. The defendant had simply played a recording.”
McCullagh “peddled a false alibi”, jurors were told.
The case continues.