He Faked a YouTube Alibi With GTA Vice City. The Jury Took Two Hours to Convict.

Justice for Natalie McNally After a Trial That Exposed a Killer's Elaborate Deception

Stephen McCullagh thought he had pulled off the perfect crime. His alibi? A six-hour GTA Vice City gaming session, apparently streamed live on YouTube while Natalie McNally was being murdered in her Lurgan home. Clever, right? The jury at Belfast Crown Court certainly thought so. So clever, in fact, that it took them just over two hours to see straight through it and deliver a unanimous guilty verdict.

Natalie McNally was 32 years old and 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed and beaten to death at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, County Armagh, on 18 December 2022. She had been planning to name her unborn son Dean. The father of that baby, Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens, Lisburn, was the man who killed her.

The pair had met through a dating app in the summer of 2022. Within months, Natalie was dead, and McCullagh was spinning an elaborate web of lies that would eventually unravel in spectacular fashion.

The Alibi That Fooled Everyone (Briefly)

Here is where it gets almost farcical, if it were not so horrifying. McCullagh pre-recorded a six-hour gaming session on 14 December, four days before the murder. He then set it to broadcast as a "live stream" on the night Natalie was killed. The stream racked up over 750,000 views before YouTube finally pulled it hours after the guilty verdict this month.

It was the PSNI's cyber-crime unit that cracked it, proving the footage had been recorded days earlier. McCullagh later admitted the pre-recording, but by then, the damage to his credibility was comprehensive.

"How Did We Fall for It?"

Perhaps the most gut-wrenching aspect of this case is how McCullagh manipulated Natalie's own family. He reportedly steered suspicion towards an ex-boyfriend of Natalie's, planting the idea in their heads while they were consumed by grief.

The McNally family have since spoken publicly about how they were deceived, asking the question that haunts them: "How did we fall for it?" It is a question born not of naivety but of the trust people naturally extend to someone who was supposed to be grieving alongside them.

The Trial

The five-week trial at Belfast Crown Court began on 16 February 2026 and relied entirely on circumstantial evidence. There was no direct physical evidence linking McCullagh to the killing. He declined to give evidence in his own defence, which tells its own story.

On 23 March 2026, the jury of six men and six women returned their unanimous verdict: guilty. The judge confirmed that the offence carries a mandatory life sentence, with the minimum tariff to be set on 15 May 2026.

Following the verdict, YouTube removed McCullagh's channels for violating "creator responsibility policies," though some of his content reportedly remained on other channels.

A Wider Problem That Cannot Be Ignored

Natalie McNally is among 30 women who have died violently in Northern Ireland since 2020. That statistic alone is damning, but it becomes even more so when you consider that Northern Ireland's femicide rate is reported to be nearly twice that of England.

The PSNI Chief Constable has since raised concerns about the force's capacity to deal with violence against women. Whether those concerns translate into meaningful action remains to be seen.

Justice, at Last

Natalie McNally deserved to raise her son Dean. She deserved to live. What she got instead was a partner who murdered her, faked an alibi using a video game stream, and then tried to blame someone else entirely. The jury saw through every last bit of it. Two hours was all they needed.

McCullagh was arrested approximately six weeks after the murder and formally charged in early February 2023. He now awaits sentencing. The McNally family awaits something that no sentence can provide.

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