![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/man-put-on-act-to-cover-his-tracks-after-murdering-pregnant-girlfriend-trial.jpg\")
Noel McNally (second left) and Bernie McNally (second right), parents of Natalie McNally, outside Belfast Crown Court (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\nA man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, Natalie McNally, \u201cput on an act\u201d to cover his tracks, Belfast Crown Court has heard.<\/p>\n
This included a tearful 999 call to police, faking a six-hour video game live stream and suggesting that an ex-partner of Ms McNally\u2019s had been responsible, telling police \u201csomeone had knocked 10 bells out of her\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms McNally, 32, was 15 weeks\u2019 pregnant when she was killed in her home in Lurgan a week before Christmas in 2022.<\/p>\n
Noel McNally (second left) and Bernie McNally (second right), parents of Natalie McNally, outside Belfast Crown Court (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, has denied her murder.<\/p>\n
He sat in the dock at Belfast Crown Court between two prison guards on Monday morning as the trial got under way.<\/p>\n
Family and friends of Ms McNally were watching on from the public gallery.<\/p>\n
A jury of six men and six women have been sworn in to serve during the trial, which is expected to last for around five weeks, before Judge Mr Justice Patrick Kinney.<\/p>\n
Setting out the case against McCullagh on Monday morning, prosecuting barrister Charles MacCreanor KC described a murder that was \u201cplanned, calculated and pre-meditated, one which he (McCullagh) hoped to get away with\u201d.<\/p>\n
He described how in the days after the murder, McCullagh had left his phone at Ms McNally\u2019s family home while it was recording, telling the jury it is up to them to decide whether that had been deliberate.<\/p>\n
Mr MacCreanor said Ms McNally\u2019s cause of death was found to have involved compression of her neck, \u201csuggestive of finger tips grasping\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also suffered three stab wounds to her neck caused by a bladed weapon and five lacerations to the back, top and right of her head \u201cin keeping with having sustained at least five heavy blows\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771912751_399_man-put-on-act-to-cover-his-tracks-after-murdering-pregnant-girlfriend-trial.jpg\")
Noel and Bernie McNally, the parents of Natalie McNally, outside Belfast Crown Court (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
He said any of these could have caused death alone.<\/p>\n
He went on: \u201cNatalie McNally was pregnant at the time and Stephen McCullagh was the father of her unborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her time of death has been estimated to be between 8:50pm and 9:30pm on Sunday December 18th, 2022.<\/p>\n
Mr MacCreanor said McCullagh, known on the online platform YouTube as Votesaxon07, concocted a \u201ccover story\u201d that he had been livestreaming himself playing video games on the evening of Sunday December 18th.<\/p>\n
But it is the prosecution case that McCullagh had pre-recorded six hours of himself playing video games which he broadcast as live that Sunday evening, and instead he took a bus to Ms McNally\u2019s home in Lurgan and murdered her.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage and footage from inside the bus was played showing a man wearing a beanie style hat with a \u201cmop of black hair\u201d underneath, and his face mostly covered getting on a bus in Dunmurray, and getting off in Lurgan before walking towards Ms McNally\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
The prosecution contend he may have changed his clothes and got a taxi back to his home in Lisburn, with footage also shown of a taxi, and a figure getting into it and being left in the \u201carea just outside McCullagh\u2019s house in Lisburn\u201d around 11pm.<\/p>\n
An examination of McCullagh\u2019s devices by police showed he had searched for bus times to Lurgan, and that he had unlocked his phone a few minutes after the taxi moved off.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr MacCreanor suggested the \u201cmop of black hair\u201d bore a comparison with a wig which McCullagh had posted a picture of himself wearing as part of a dress up costume on Instagram previously.<\/p>\n
Put to McCullagh during police interview, court heard he responded saying: \u201cIt seems that the suspect did take a taxi to my house, I have no idea who this person was, but I think that is it obvious that the true killer of Natalie has left a clear circumstantial trail to link me to the murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea where they went after they entered my property, but they could easily have jumped the fence and made their way without being seen\u201d.<\/p>\n
McCullagh\u2019s distressed sounding 999 call on the night of Monday December 19 was also played during the first day of the trial.<\/p>\n
The court heard he told police the last time he saw Ms McCullagh had been on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the prosecution case, this call is false, it\u2019s an act, it\u2019s put on by him, part of his plan to do the murder and get away with it,\u201d Mr MacCreanor said.<\/p>\n
He said the ambulance service and police were quickly at the scene, and reported finding McCullagh with Ms McNally.<\/p>\n
\u201cNatalie McNally is lying at the top of the stairs\u2026 which was the living area of the home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cStephen McCullagh is described by the paramedics as performing CPR to the female and he\u2019s described as being quite visibly upset.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said police described McCullagh as being \u201cdistraught and overcome\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, we say this is all part of an act, a front,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the 999 call, McCullagh is heard audibly upset and sobbing as he asked for emergency services to come to Ms McNally\u2019s address in Lurgan, urging: \u201cPlease come as soon as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operator talks McCullagh through how to position Ms McNally and administer CPR compressions as he waited for paramedics to arrive, encouraging him to \u201ckeep going\u201d, telling him he was giving her the best chance.<\/p>\n
Paramedic Graham Thompson was the first witness to give evidence.<\/p>\n
He said he had been first into Ms McNally\u2019s house after the 999 call, and saw a very pale female lying on the floor at the top of the stairs, and \u201ca lot of blood had been lost\u201d, adding her hands and lips were purple\/blue.<\/p>\n
![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771912752_307_man-put-on-act-to-cover-his-tracks-after-murdering-pregnant-girlfriend-trial.jpg\")
Natalie McNally\u2019s father Noel (second right), mum Bernie (left) and brother Niall (right) outside Belfast Crown Court (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
He said a \u201cvisibly upset\u201d gentleman was on his knees performing CPR, and had had to tell him to stop, and there was no hope of resuscitation at that stage.<\/p>\n
Next, Constable Archibald described arriving at the house to find the front door open and noticing \u201cquite a strong foul smell\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said she took a visibly distraught and crying McCullagh to the police car to talk to him, and to both allow him privacy and the emergency services space to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a gentleman who was visibly distraught, very upset, who had just witnessed something very traumatic, so my initial response at that point was to console him as best as I could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said during their conversation he said he did not really speak to his family, but wanted to speak to a friend for support.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept saying \u2018why? Why my Natalie, why my Natalie, and who would do such a thing\u2019, and I do remember thinking that seems a bit odd because at this point it wasn\u2019t confirmed to being treated as a murder or even as suspicious at this point,\u201d she told the court.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the final witness, and another first responder, Constable Feeley told the court he saw a knife around three or four feet behind Ms McNally\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
He said he saw \u201ca large amount of blood\u201d surrounding Ms McNally, on the walls and into the living room.<\/p>\n
He also described seeing McCullagh, and described him as \u201cdistraught, overcome with grief, crying and nearly falling about the place\u201d.<\/p>\n
The trial will continue on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, Natalie McNally, \u201cput on an act\u201d to cover his tracks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-314228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}