A Northern Ireland YouTuber who used a fake livestream as an alibi while murdering his pregnant girlfriend has been sentenced to life in prison. (Credit: PSNI via Storyful)
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A Northern Ireland YouTuber who staged a fake livestream to create an alibi while he murdered his pregnant girlfriend was sentenced to life in prison on June 3.
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Stephen McCullagh received a minimum term of 31 years behind bars — one of the longest sentences ever imposed in Northern Ireland — for the 2022 killing of Natalie McNally at her home just days before Christmas.
McNally was 32 years old and 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed.
The backstory:
Prosecutors said McCullagh orchestrated what appeared to be a legitimate YouTube livestream showing him playing video games. The broadcast was used to make it seem as though he was elsewhere while he traveled to McNally’s home.
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The following day, McCullagh claimed to have found McNally’s body and, according to police, “masqueraded as a distraught and caring partner.”
Although he was arrested at the scene and later released, investigators continued to examine the case. After an extensive inquiry, cybercrime specialists uncovered what police described as “irrefutable evidence” proving the livestream “had in fact been pre-recorded several days earlier.”
Police-released footage, available here, includes segments of the fabricated livestream, McCullagh’s arrest, the moment investigators confronted him with evidence that the stream was fake, security video showing him boarding a bus to McNally’s hometown on the night of the murder, and media-use photographs of both McCullagh and McNally.
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