{"id":362701,"date":"2026-03-24T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/362701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:44:10","slug":"cheers-and-tears-after-stephen-mccullagh-found-guilt-of-murdering-natalie-mcnally-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/362701\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheers and tears after Stephen McCullagh found guilt of murdering Natalie McNally \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly before 3.45pm on Monday, the public gallery of a Belfast<\/a> courtroom erupted. <\/p>\n

Family and friends of Natalie McNally<\/a> (32) jumped to their feet and cheered the moment a jury foreman delivered its verdict; Stephen McCullagh, McNally\u2019s partner and father of her unborn child, was guilty of her murder.<\/p>\n

Muffled sobs echoed round Court 13 when judge Patrick Kinney told the YouTuber<\/a> he will serve a life sentence.<\/p>\n

In the glass fronted dock, McCullagh (36) showed no emotion. <\/p>\n

As jurors took their seats, he sat stroking his beard, flanked by two custody officers.<\/p>\n

Sitting directly behind him in the gallery were Natalie McNally\u2019s parents, Noel and Bernadette.<\/p>\n

They wept uncontrollably.<\/p>\n

Other relatives punched the air and hugged.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen McCullagh. Photograph: Facebook <\/p>\n

The family has attended each pretrial court hearing since McCullagh was first charged with McNally\u2019s murder three years ago; their \u201cdignity\u201d was singled out by the judge on Monday.<\/p>\n

It took the jury of six men and six women just over two hours to reach its unanimous verdict.<\/p>\n

Every person in the gallery stood to applaud the jurors as they left the courtroom; a court clerk wiped tears from her eyes.<\/p>\n

Throughout the five-week trial there has been standing room only.<\/p>\n

Documentary film makers were among the press pack; court security staff brought in extra seats for police and reporters.<\/p>\n

At the back right hand corner of the court a team of PSNI detectives sat in the same seats each day.<\/p>\n

They, too, were applauded by the Co Armagh family and their supporters.<\/p>\n

But the loudest cheer was reserved for prosecution barrister, Charles MacCreanor and his junior counsel, Bobbie-Leigh Herdman.<\/p>\n

On the enormous fourth-floor landing outside the courtroom, a circle formed around the pair as supporters clapped wildly.<\/p>\n

MacCreanor and Herdman became emotional when relatives queued to hug them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lost over three years of our life to McCullagh … we got him,\u201d one relative said.<\/p>\n

Noel McNally said he was \u201cpessimistic\u201d right until the verdict was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted, can\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said, holding his wife\u2019s hand tightly.<\/p>\n

\"NatalieNatalie McNally’s parents Noel (second from right) and Bernadette outside the court on Monday. Photograph: Mark Marlow\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The couple have sat side by side throughout the trial; Bernadette McNally cried quietly when a pathologist spent 40 minutes demonstrating on his own body the extensive injuries her only daughter suffered.<\/p>\n

Some of those injuries were suggestive of her trying to protect herself, Northern Ireland State Pathologist James Lyness told the court during his evidence.<\/p>\n

McCullagh, a former Belfast Telegraph employee from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, did not take the stand.<\/p>\n

He rarely showed emotion during the 18 days of evidence; when he did it was to giggle at his own jokes when jurors were shown clips from his fake Grand Theft Auto live stream.<\/p>\n

He repeatedly claimed during police interviews that an \u201caggressive\u201d ex-boyfriend was the killer.<\/p>\n

The motive, the prosecution said, was WhatsApp messages McCullagh had read on his partner\u2019s phone; the messages were sent to other men (including the ex-boyfriend) in the weeks before her death, and had \u201cenraged him\u201d.<\/p>\n

But it was McCullagh who travelled by bus to Natalie McNally\u2019s home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan where he stabbed, strangled and beat her to death on the evening of Sunday, December 18th, 2022. He then travelled back to his Lisburn house by taxi wearing a disguise.<\/p>\n

MacCreanor described the \u201chorrendous and savage\u201d beating McNally suffered at the hands of her partner; it was a \u201cprolonged assault\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hours before the murder, McCullagh waved his partner off after she stayed overnight at his house where they watched Christmas re-runs of The Office and the US sitcom It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The three stab wounds to her neck alone would have killed her, according to MacCreanor. <\/p>\n

Jurors were not shown crime scene photos of McNally\u2019s body because of the graphic nature of her injuries.<\/p>\n

McCullagh\u2019s elaborate alibi on the night of the murder \u2013 a six-hour gaming live-stream which had in fact been pre-recorded \u2013 was initially believed by police.<\/p>\n

\"NatalieNatalie McNally’s mother Bernadette after the verdict was delivered. Photograph: Mark Marlow\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Had he not missed a train after the murder and got a taxi instead, he could have got away with the crime, a prosecution lawyer told The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage of a \u201cperson of interest\u201d getting out of the taxi at McCullagh\u2019s Lisburn home was again played to jurors at their request on Monday \u2013 an hour after they retired to consider their verdict.<\/p>\n

McCullagh was re-arrested on January 31, 2023 and had his computer seized; cyber crime experts made the breakthrough that the live stream was false. It was the \u201ccover story\u201d, the prosecution said.<\/p>\n

Outside the Laganside court complex in Belfast city centre, the McNally family emerged to a row of television cameras and reporters after 5pm on Monday.<\/p>\n

Declan McNally\u2019s hand shook as he read a handwritten tribute to his only sister.<\/p>\n

Natalie was an \u201can inspirational person\u201d, he told media.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving you in our lives was the greatest joy we\u2019ll ever have. You would have been an amazing mother to baby Dean,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will love you forever and we hope you can now rest easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Violence against women and girls \u2013 the North has one of the highest femicide rate in western Europe \u2013 is the \u201cshame of our society\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Declan McNally said he did not know how his parents had managed to get through the past 3\u00bd years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve held us all together, it\u2019s just amazing, we love you very much\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly before 3.45pm on Monday, the public gallery of a Belfast courtroom erupted. Family and friends of Natalie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48512,4501,42,142909,43,2443,21754,40,38,41,39,4621],"class_list":["post-362701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-armagh","tag-belfast","tag-headlines","tag-natalie-mcnally","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362701","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=362701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}