Stephen McCullagh must serve a minimum of 31 years in prison before he can be considered for release, following his conviction for the murder of Natalie McNally. The sentence was handed down at Laganside Courthouse by Kinney J on 3 June 2026, after a jury unanimously found McCullagh guilty. He had already received a mandatory life sentence at the conclusion of the trial.

Natalie McNally was murdered on 18 December 2022 at her home in Lurgan. The court heard that McCullagh travelled from his home in Lisburn to Lurgan by bus that evening, having earlier searched Translink timetables on the internet. CCTV footage tracked his movements through Lurgan town centre to McNally's address and back. He returned home by taxi, arriving at 23:13. His phone, which had been inactive during the journey, became active again at 23:16.

The state pathologist, Professor Lyness, told the court that McNally sustained three categories of injury: bruising consistent with neck compression, three stab wounds to the neck - one of which nicked the jugular vein and would have caused death without prompt treatment - and blunt force trauma to the head consistent with at least five heavy impacts, as well as additional blunt impacts possibly from punches. Professor Lyness concluded that the neck compression, stab wounds and head injuries all contributed to her death.

A central feature of the case was a six-hour video McCullagh pre-recorded on 14 and 15 December 2022 and set to stream on YouTube at 18:00 on 18 December - the evening of the murder. He told friends and McNally herself that he planned to livestream that night, without revealing the recording was pre-made. He used the stream as his alibi when police arrived at the murder scene on 19 December. When officers challenged him on whether the stream was pre-recorded, he initially disputed this before providing a prepared statement confirming it had been recorded earlier. Kinney J found beyond reasonable doubt that the video was deliberately constructed to appear live and to serve as a pre-planned alibi, noting that McCullagh deleted and emptied the file from his computer immediately after the stream concluded.

Kinney J applied a starting point of 20 years, reflecting what the court determined was exceptionally high culpability, consistent with the recalibrated sentencing framework set out by the Court of Appeal in R v Whitla [2024] NICA 65. That decision revised the McCandless guidelines, establishing 15/16 years as the normal starting point for high-culpability murders, with 20 years applicable in cases of exceptionally high culpability. From that starting point, the judge moved substantially upward to reflect multiple serious aggravating factors.

Those factors included the extensive premeditation involved, the domestic abuse context of the killing, McNally's vulnerability as a pregnant woman living alone who was murdered in her own home by someone she trusted, the degradation she was subjected to, and the loss of her unborn child - a boy the family named Dean. The court also treated as a significant aggravating factor McCullagh's sustained effort to falsely implicate McNally's former boyfriend, a campaign that continued through the trial itself and required five days of evidence from that individual and his partner. McCullagh also covertly recorded the McNally family during their private conversations after the murder.

The defence did not advance any case of remorse or acceptance of responsibility. A pre-sentence report from the Probation Board for Northern Ireland assessed McCullagh as posing a significant risk of serious harm with a high likelihood of reoffending. He has no previous criminal record. Kinney J said personal circumstances identified in the report carried little weight and did not justify any reduction in the tariff.

Victim impact statements were received from a number of McNally's family members. Her brother Declan said the savagery of the murder and the loss of baby Dean had inflicted immeasurable harm on the family. Kinney J noted that McNally did not know before her death that she was expecting a boy. McCullagh will remain on life licence for the remainder of his life if released, and can be recalled to custody at any time.