Stephen McCullagh to appeal 31-year sentence for murder of Natalie McNally

Stephen McCullagh is to appeal a life sentence prison tariff of 31 years for the murder of Natalie McNally (PSNI/PA)

A man who staged a fake YouTube gaming livestream to provide an alibi for the murder of his pregnant partner Natalie McNally in December 2022 is to appeal against the sentence he received.

Stephen McCullagh was told by a judge at Belfast Crown Court earlier this month that he will serve at least 31 years in prison for the killing.

The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland has been notified that an appeal against the sentence has now been lodged.

McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, was found guilty of the murder by a jury earlier this year.

Natalie McNally was murdered at her home in Lurgan in December 2022 (Family handout/PA)

Ms McNally, 32, had been 15 weeks pregnant when she was subjected to what judge Mr Justice Kinney described as a “brutal and frenzied attack”.

The judge said the staged livestream of McCullagh playing computer games on the night he killed Ms McNally was an “integral” part of his murder plan.

McCullagh denied the murder to detectives, claiming he had been livestreaming on his YouTube channel at the time she died.

But police experts discovered the six-hour stream had actually been filmed four days before and broadcast as live on December 18 2022, the night Ms McNally was killed.

The family of Natalie McNally following the sentencing at Belfast Crown Court earlier in June (Liam McBurney/PA)

The judge said the staged livestream had been “carefully curated to appear as if it was streaming live and to provide the defendant a carefully planned complete alibi to the murder”.

The judge said when considering the tariff he assessed McCullagh’s culpability as “extremely high”.

“The defendant did not just kill Natalie McNally, her unborn child also died as a result of the murderous assault,” said the judge.

Setting the minimum 31-year prison term, the judge said the sentence passed “cannot possibly reflect the value of Natalie’s life, or indeed that of her unborn child, Dean” or meet the family’s sense of “grief and loss”.