A YouTuber has been sentenced to decades behind bars for murdering his pregnant girlfriend, then trying to hide it by setting up a fake livestream to use as an alibi.
Stephen McCullagh sat stone-faced in Ireland’s Belfast Crown Court as a judge on Wednesday ordered him to spend a minimum of 31 years in prison for the slaying of Natalie McNally, the Guardian reported. She was found dead at her home in Lurgan on Dec. 18, 2022. She suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck, strangulation, and heavy blows to her head, police previously said.
McNally was 15 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
That same evening, McCullagh’s YouTube channel was streaming a video of him playing Grand Theft Auto, suggesting he’d been at his own home some 17 miles away from the crime scene. In reality, the 36-year-old gamer had recorded the footage days earlier, in a bid to feign his innocence. Prosecutors said he wore a disguise to travel to McNally’s home while the video played.
“I am not leaving the house tonight,” he said in the broadcast, during which he sported a Santa hat and drank Guinness.
Authorities arrested McCullagh’s shortly after the discovery of McNally’s body, but he was released after providing cops with his stream from the night of the murder. He went on to attend McNally’s wake, and he was welcomed by her family.
Upon further investigation, authorities determined McCullagh staged the stream, and he was re-arrested and convicted following a weeks-long trial back in March
“When he first arrived at the house on Christmas Day, during Natalie’s wake, the family brought him in and comforted him,” the judge said. “They allowed him to spend extensive time alone with Natalie, ostensibly to grieve for her.”