A man in Northern Ireland confected an alibi for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend by uploading a prerecorded gaming session to YouTube and pretending it was a live stream, a court has been told.
Stephen McCullagh broadcast a six-hour recording of him playing Grand Theft Auto and Robot Wars to create the impression that he was at home, while in fact he was 17 miles away committing murder, prosecutors told Belfast crown court on Thursday.
McCullagh, 36, of Lisburn, County Antrim, denies murdering Natalie McNally, 32, who was found dead at her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, in December 2022.
The prosecution alleges McCullagh hoped to get away with a brutal killing that was “planned, calculated and premeditated”.
It is alleged he recorded the gaming session on the nights of 14 and 15 December and broadcast it on his YouTube account, Votesaxon07, on the evening of 18 December. Meanwhile, he disguised himself, took a bus to Lurgan, walked to McNally’s home, killed her and took a taxi home.
A state pathologist, Dr James Lyness, told the court that McNally, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was subjected to a prolonged assault that included stab wounds to the neck, strangulation and heavy blows to the head.
The jury of six men and six women was shown segments of the broadcast in which McCullagh appeared wearing a Santa hat and said he had “wanted to do a live stream for some time now”.
McCullagh told viewers that because it was an old computer he could not check the livechat. He drank Guinness and Baileys, and made references to staying at home and broadcasting live. “I am not leaving the house tonight,” he said.
He went to McNally’s house on 19 December, a day after the murder, and made a 999 call, saying he had found his girlfriend’s body.
DC Matthews, a digital forensic analyst, told the court that examination of McCullagh’s computer and software “provided extensive evidence indicating that the broadcast was prerecorded and later streamed as a live event”.
It was recorded on 14 December and saved as a video file that was deleted in the early hours of 19 December, then removed from the computer’s recycle bin, said the analyst.
After police arrested McCullagh and put it to him that the video stream had not been broadcast live, he made a statement admitting that it was recorded several nights before the murder.
The jury was shown a knife that police believe may have been used in the killing.
Mr Justice Kinney is presiding over the trial, which started on Monday and is expected to last five weeks.
