YouTuber jailed for life after staging fake livestream while he murdered pregnant girlfriend
The 36-year-old had said he couldn't have murdered his pregnant girlfriend because he was live-streaming at the time - but police later discovered the stream had actually been filmed four days earlier
A Youtuber who staged a fake gaming livestream to act as an alibi while he murdered his pregnant girlfriend has been jailed for 31 years.
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Stephen McCullagh murdered his 15-week pregnant girlfriend Natalie McNally in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, in December 2022, before presenting as devastated to her grieving family.
The 36-year-old, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, was handed a life sentence at Belfast Crown Court and will serve a minimum of 31 years.
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”.
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McCullagh appeared to live a quiet life in the suburb of Dunmurry, juggling shifts at a local newspaper website with running his YouTube channel Votesaxon07, which had more than 1,500 followers.
The 36-year-old had built an online persona of a self-described “internet man child” who reviewed Marvel figures, Doctor Who merchandise and Robot Wars.
McCullagh initially denied the murder to detectives, claiming that he had been live streaming on his YouTube channel at his home 20 miles away in Lurgan 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.
McCullagh then mounted a “concerted effort” to pass the blame for murdering Ms McNally to her ex-boyfriend, the judge said.
Justice Kinney also highlighted that McCullagh spent time with Ms McNally’s family in the aftermath of her death.
The judge said McCullagh presented to the family as “devastated, distraught and shocked”.
“When he first arrived at the house on Christmas Day, during Natalie’s wake, the family brought him in and comforted him,” said the judge.
“They allowed him to spend extensive time alone with Natalie, ostensibly to grieve for her.”
The judge said when considering the tariff he assessed McCullagh’s culpability as “extremely high”.
He said it was “difficult to find words” to describe the “abhorrence” of his murder of Ms McNally.
“The defendant did not just kill Natalie McNally, her unborn child also died as a result of the murderous assault,” said the judge.
“The defendant was fully aware that Natalie was pregnant. He intended to kill her and he knew that her baby, at such an early stage of the pregnancy, would have no chance of surviving the attack.”
Ordering McCullagh to stand before he set the 31-year prison term, Justice Kinney 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”.
“Stephen McCullagh, you have committed a brutal and senseless murder,” he said.
“You planned this murder in remorseless detail. You attacked someone you profess to love in a frenzied assault, which was characterised by its excessive and gratuitous violence.
“Despite that frenzy, the killing was cold-blooded and calculated, as evidenced by the extensive planning leading up to the murder and your actions afterwards. Your behaviour towards the McNally family showed your absolute determination to cover your tracks.”