The former partner of Natalie McNally has been found guilty of her murder. <\/p>\n
It took the jury of six men and six women two hours to find Stephen McCullagh (36), from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, Co Antrim, guilty of killing McNally (32) \u2013 who was 15 weeks pregnant with his child \u2013 at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, Co Armagh, on the night of Sunday, December 18th, 2022.<\/p>\n
The verdict was unanimous. <\/p>\n
McCullagh was sentenced to life imprisonment \u2013 which is mandatory for such a crime \u2013 with the minimum tariff to be set at a later date.<\/p>\n
Family and friends of the victim cheered and hugged in court after the verdict was announced, and a number broke down in tears. <\/p>\n
Judge Patrick Kinney thanked them for the way they had attended the pretrial proceedings and the trial itself, and praised them for the \u201cdignity\u201d they had shown. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know this is a difficult day as well for the family,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The McNally family and their friends and supporters applauded the jurors as they left the courtroom, after the judge thanked them \u201cfor the way you have carried out your duties\u201d in this \u201cvery difficult trial involving some very traumatic evidence\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said they had shown diligence, commitment and patience, and in view of the \u201cdistressing nature\u201d of the trial they were released from jury service in the future. <\/p>\n
McCullagh stood without expression in the dock as the verdict was read out. <\/p>\n
During the five-week trial at Belfast Crown Court, jurors heard McCullagh had \u201clied and lied again\u201d and \u201cpeddled this false alibi\u201d that he was live streaming on YouTube on the evening of McNally\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
The crime was a \u201cplanned, calculated, premeditated murder\u201d which McCullagh had \u201choped to get away with\u201d, prosecutors said at the outset of the four-week trial at Belfast Crown Court.<\/p>\n
An \u201celaborate\u201d alibi \u2013 a six-hour YouTube live stream which was in fact pre-recorded \u2013 was initially accepted by police and not uncovered until more than a month after McNally\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
The prosecution said that on the night of her murder he had instead travelled by public transport to McNally\u2019s home, carried out the \u201cprolonged assault\u201d which left her with multiple fatal injuries and caused the death of her unborn child. <\/p>\n
He then played the grieving partner and father-to-be, convincing the McNally family he was \u201cdistraught\u201d. <\/p>\n
McCullagh denied the charge and, in a case built entirely from circumstantial evidence, declined to give evidence on his own behalf, instead blaming an ex-boyfriend of McNally\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Speaking outside the court, the McNally family thanked family, friends and the wider public for their support, saying that without it \u201cwe would not have got through this most difficult time in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNally\u2019s brother Niall McNally said that as his sister \u201creceives justice today, our hearts go out to all the victims of violence against women and girls. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is that all the victims and families get their day in court, and the justice they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another brother, Declan McNally, described Natalie McNally as an \u201cinspirational person\u201d who would have been \u201can amazing mother to baby Dean.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said that having her in their lives \u201cwas the greatest joy we\u2019ll ever have\u201d, adding \u201cwe will love you forever and we hope you can now rest easy.\u201d \u2013 Additional reporting: PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former partner of Natalie McNally has been found guilty of her murder. It took the jury of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28566,42,1634,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-361506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bob","tag-headlines","tag-media","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361506","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=361506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}