For six hours on December 18, 2022, Stephen McCullagh appeared to be exactly where he wanted everyone to believe he was. On YouTube, the gaming creator sat at home in a Santa hat, drinking, vaping and playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Robot Wars. He referred to the time, joked with viewers and repeatedly explained that technical problems prevented him from responding to the live chat. Seventeen miles away in Lurgan, his pregnant girlfriend, Natalie McNally, was being beaten, strangled and stabbed inside her home. McCullagh knew. The “livestream” was nothing but a recording. Their relationship had begun only 133 days before the incident. In that brief span, the hopeful 32-year-old had met McCullagh on a dating app, fallen in love, introduced him to her family and conceived the son she planned to name Dean. By the end of those 133 days, a jury would find, he was preparing her homicide and an alibi designed to survive it. Family Handout Natalie was a law graduate who worked as a marketing executive for the transport company Translink. She loved animals, reading, music and travelling with her family to Everton and Gaelic football matches. In the summer of 2022, she turned to Bumble hoping to find someone with whom she could build the next part of her life. There she met McCullagh. On August 7, he moved their conversation to WhatsApp with an introduction that sounded playfully awkward: “Hey Nat, it’s that robot weirdo from Bumble.” BBC They arranged to meet in Belfast later that week, and to say the relationship accelerated from there would be an understatement. The two exchanged hundreds of messages over the following months. By October, McCullagh had met Natalie’s family, and she had told him that she was pregnant. In early November, her parents learned that she was expecting his child. Family Handout By December, Natalie was 15 weeks pregnant, and the baby already had a name. Dean. At the same time, McCullagh had spent years building a life online. His Votesaxon07 YouTube channel had existed since October 2015 and accumulated more than 12 million views. Its roughly 37,000 subscribers watched him review toys and props and create gaming content. BBC Behind the excitement surrounding Natalie’s pregnancy, the relationship was already beginning to fracture. For reasons we might never know, Natalie was already planning to leave McCullagh and was actively exchanging flirtatious and suggestive messages with other men. In fact, one of them later testified that Natalie was considering ending things with McCullagh by New Year. Prosecutors believed McCullagh, who knew the passcode to her phone, had accessed at least some of those conversations and discovered what he may have regarded as a humiliating betrayal. Yet there was no explosive confrontation in their surviving messages. McCullagh continued presenting himself to Natalie and her family as a loving partner who was thrilled to become Dean’s father. Still, Natalie was 15 weeks pregnant and privately contemplating a future without him. On December 14 and into the early hours of December 15, McCullagh recorded a six-hour gaming session titled The Violent Night Christmas Live Gaming Stream. Wearing a Santa hat, he played games, drank, vaped and spoke as though viewers were watching him live on Sunday, December 18. He repeatedly claimed that “technical problems” prevented him from reading or answering the live chat. IrishBlue1878 On December 18, Natalie spent time at McCullagh’s Lisburn home before leaving to watch the World Cup final between Argentina and France with her parents in Lurgan. Doorbell footage captured McCullagh waving goodbye at approximately 1 pm. While she was with him that day, he had searched public-transport routes between Lisburn, Dunmurry and Lurgan, including a possible return journey. At 4 pm, McCullagh advertised the upcoming broadcast. At 5:57 pm, he messaged Natalie that he was going to “stream the night away.” She wished him luck and said she might watch. Three minutes later, the prerecorded video began playing on his channel, and his phone became inactive. IrishBlue1878 The man onscreen appeared settled in for the night, on the other hand, the man captured by surveillance cameras was moving in the opposite direction. At 6:36 pm, a figure carrying a bag was recorded walking near McCullagh’s home. At 7:36 pm, bus CCTV captured a man of his build travelling from Dunmurry to Lurgan with his face covered, wearing dark clothing and gloves and carrying a green shopping bag. Cameras followed the figure through Lurgan toward Silverwood Green. At 8:24 pm, Natalie’s account accessed McCullagh’s supposed livestream. At approximately 8:51 pm, the disguised man entered her home. Belfast Telegraph Neighbours heard screams at around 9 pm. Natalie endured what state pathologist Dr James Lyness described as a prolonged attack, with multiple stab wounds, including three to her neck, as well as blunt-force trauma, lacerations to her head, fractures and extensive injuries across her face, mouth, neck, hands, arms and upper body. The violence she was subjected to left investigators dumbfounded. Justice Patrick Kinney later said it was “difficult to find words” to express his “abhorrence.” He described the homicide as a “frenzied a**ault” marked by “excessive and gratuitous violence.” Injuries consistent with strangulation or manual compression marked her throat. The stabbing or neck compression could each have ended her. Needless to say, the attack also ended Dean’s life. There was no eyewitness inside the house, no confession and no DNA directly tying McCullagh to the incident. PSNI The prosecution was left with no option but to reconstruct the incident through dozens of separate pieces of evidence. Together, they placed Natalie’s homicide between approximately 8:50 and 9:30 pm, the same 39-minute period during which the disguised figure remained inside Silverwood Green. At 9:31 pm, cameras captured the man leaving. His clothing or appearance had changed. At approximately 10:46 pm, taxi driver Jeff McAvoy picked up a passenger near Fa Joe’s bar in Lurgan. GPS data showed the cab reaching the area around McCullagh’s Lisburn home at about 11:11 pm. Cameras recorded a man throwing two objects over a hedge, and McCullagh’s phone became active again at 11:16 pm. Family Handout All the while, his digital double was happily “livestreaming” on YouTube. In a gruesome “coincidence,” during the period in which Natalie was brutally attacked, the video showed the fake McCullagh playing an optional Grand Theft Auto sequence involving the homicide of a woman and the staging of her passing as an accident. Prosecutors were convinced the sequence was no coincidence at all. At 12:05 am on December 19, the broadcast was manually stopped. The original recording was deleted shortly afterward and later removed from the computer’s recycle bin. McCullagh then began the next step of his plan: manufacturing concern. He messaged Natalie after midnight, asked whether she was all right that afternoon, said he was becoming worried and ordered himself a KFC before finally going to her home late that night. PSNI At approximately 9:55 pm on December 19, McCullagh called emergency services and claimed he had found Natalie. The call lasted about ten minutes. He cried, attempted CPR and begged for help. “Please come as soon as you can,” he said. “She’s pregnant, she’s cold.” He then told the operator that there was blood everywhere. Police arrested the 32-year-old at the scene. He immediately offered the apparent livestream as proof that he had been home throughout the previous evening and pointed officers toward one of Natalie’s former partners. Pro_Shimon YouTube confirmed that, from the platform’s perspective, the programme had been broadcast live. The alibi worked. McCullagh was released the following day and temporarily removed from the centre of the investigation. He then kept the charade alive. Family Handout McCullagh visited Natalie’s parents, attended her wake and accepted comfort from the family. He showed her mother an engagement ring he claimed to have bought for Natalie, spoke about Dean and was allowed to spend time alone with Natalie’s remains. He later attended a vigil at Stormont and visited her grave. At the same time, he continued directing suspicion toward Natalie’s former boyfriend, alleging that the man had harassed her. PSNI The former partner was investigated and eventually testified that he had watched the World Cup final with his own partner. Although he admitted lying to police about other matters and resetting his phone, the evidence did not place him inside Natalie’s home. McCullagh’s effort to monitor the family went further. Prosecutors said he once left a phone recording inside the McNally home, then returned on the pretext that he had forgotten it. That behavior had a precedent, as a former girlfriend later testified that McCullagh had secretly recorded her private counselling sessions. Social Media As detectives collected CCTV from homes, buses and streets, the masked traveller emerged as the route through the case. The green bag, physical build, movements and later change in appearance connected the figure travelling toward Silverwood Green with the man who returned by taxi. Photographs from McCullagh’s social media showed him wearing a hat and dark curly wig resembling the appearance captured after the attack. Investigators then returned to the livestream. Because McCullagh had worked in digital media, police needed a warrant that addressed protections for journalistic material before examining his computer. PSNI Once inside, the cyber-crime team found that the six-hour video had been created days before Natalie’s homicide. OBS Studio, a software used to manage livestreams, supplied the technical proof. A genuine broadcast would have generated background computer activity during pauses. McCullagh’s machine showed none. There was no user interaction between 6 pm and 12:05 am, meaning the programme had been playing from an existing file while its creator was away. After reviewing the results, a cyber-crime detective told the senior investigating officer, “Sit down, we’ve got him.” McCullagh was rearrested on January 31, 2023, and charged with homicide at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court on February 2. Family Handout He admitted that the stream had been prerecorded but replaced his first lie with another story. He claimed he had remained home, drinking before falling asleep. His lawyers stressed that the case was circumstantial and argued that someone else could have travelled to his home in a deliberate attempt to frame him. Bail was repeatedly refused. McCullagh remained at Maghaberry Prison while the case moved slowly toward trial. He formally pleaded not guilty on January 12, 2024, and the High Court refused bail again that September because of concerns that he might interfere with witnesses A scheduled trial was delayed on November 3, 2025, after the defence received hundreds of newly disclosed documents that could eventually total about 30,000 pages. Social Media As detectives collected CCTV from homes, buses and streets, the masked traveller emerged as the route through the case. The green bag, physical build, movements and later change in appearance connected the figure travelling toward Silverwood Green with the man who returned by taxi. Photographs from McCullagh’s social media showed him wearing a hat and dark curly wig resembling the appearance captured after the attack. Investigators then returned to the livestream. Because McCullagh had worked in digital media, police needed a warrant that addressed protections for journalistic material before examining his computer. Once inside, the cyber-crime team found that the six-hour video had been created days before Natalie’s homicide. OBS Studio, a software used to manage livestreams, supplied the technical proof. A genuine broadcast would have generated background computer activity during pauses. McCullagh’s machine showed none. There was no user interaction between 6 pm and 12:05 am, meaning the programme had been playing from an existing file while its creator was away. After reviewing the results, a cyber-crime detective told the senior investigating officer, “Sit down, we’ve got him.” McCullagh was rearrested on January 31, 2023, and charged with homicide at Lisburn Magistrates’ Court on February 2. IrishBlue1878 He admitted that the stream had been prerecorded but replaced his first lie with another story. He claimed he had remained home, drinking before falling asleep. His lawyers stressed that the case was circumstantial and argued that someone else could have travelled to his home in a deliberate attempt to frame him. Bail was repeatedly refused. McCullagh remained at Maghaberry Prison while the case moved slowly toward trial. He formally pleaded not guilty on January 12, 2024, and the High Court refused bail again that September because of concerns that he might interfere with witnesses A scheduled trial was delayed on November 3, 2025, after the defence received hundreds of newly disclosed documents that could eventually total about 30,000 pages. PSNI At a hearing on May 21, McCullagh told a probation officer that he might have been responsible but had “no memory” of the night. The statement was not accepted as a confession. On June 3, Justice Kinney ordered McCullagh to serve at least 31 years before he could be considered for release. The judge called the attack brutal, frenzied, “cold-blooded and calculated,” and told him, “You planned this m**der in remorseless detail.” PA Images He found that McCullagh intended to attack Natalie and their unborn son and treated the fake broadcast, disguise, concealment and manipulation of her family as evidence of exceptionally high culpability. After sentencing, police released the emergency call, CCTV and sections of McCullagh’s interviews, allowing the public to see the journey and hear his repeated refusal to answer. Natalie’s father, Noel, said the family had endured “unimaginable pain and grief” and described their own punishment as a life sentence. PA Images McCullagh’s legal troubles continued. More recently, on September 17 and 18, 2026, and after a reporting restriction was lifted, a separate case revealed 19 charges against McCullagh. These include voyeurism, making and possessing indecent photographs, and possessing an image involving a child. Prosecutors alleged that between January 2007 and January 2023 he covertly recorded 12 women performing private acts. McCullagh denied every charge. The allegations remained unproven ahead of a trial expected in October.
