CCTV footage of a figure throwing items over a hedge beside the house of a man accused of murdering his pregnant partner has been shown in a Belfast court.
On the fourth day of the trial of Stephen McCullagh, who denies murdering Natalie McNally in Co Armagh a week before Christmas in 2022, a jury watched footage recorded on the day and evening of the killing.
One of the final clips shown at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday related to an individual getting out of a taxi at the defendant’s home, throwing something over a hedge and then entering the gates of the house.
McCullagh (36), from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, Co Antrim, has denied murder.
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McNally (32) was killed at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, on the night of December 18th, 2022, when she was 15 weeks’ pregnant with a baby boy.
The time of death was 8.50pm-9.30pm. McCullagh was the father of the deceased’s unborn child.
On Thursday afternoon, the jury of six men and six women watched a series of CCTV clips as well as ring doorbell footage recorded in the Lisburn and Lurgan areas as part of the prosecution case.
McNally’s car was shown leaving the defendant’s house at lunchtime.
A clip of McCullough entering an off-licence and buying alcohol later in the afternoon was also played.
The footage then tracked the route of a “person of interest” who boarded a bus in Dunmurry and travelled to Lurgan on the evening of the murder.
The Translink bus CCTV clips showed an individual wearing dark clothes with a scarf concealing most of their face.
The person carried a green shopping bag and paid a bus driver in cash.
Further footage showed the person wearing different clothes and walking from McNally’s street in Silverwood Green to Market Street in Lurgan, where they get a taxi.
The person appeared to have long dark hair.
A taxi then arrived on McCullough’s street and a figure “appears to throw two objects over the hedge” before “walking into the front gate of the defendant’s home address”, PSNI detective Paul Crawford told the court.
A blue bin is later left by a figure on the footpath outside the house. The person emerges a second time to open and close the bin.
Photographs from the defendant’s Instagram account in which he wore a long black wig were also presented by the prosecution.
Jurors were told the photographs were obtained by police in October last year.
The prosecution had previously linked the style of wig with the appearance of the person seen in the Lurgan CCTV footage.
Earlier, a cybercrime police investigator said there is “extensive evidence” that a YouTube live stream broadcast by McCullagh was pre-recorded.
Digital forensics analyst Nathan Matthews examined the defendant’s computer between January 21st, 2022 and February 1st, 2023.
The detective works for the PSNI Cyber Crime Unit.
Matthews said there was “no indication of user activity whatsoever” on the night of the murder, when The Violent Night Christmas Live Gaming Stream appeared on McCullagh’s YouTube channel.
At the opening of the trial on Monday, the court heard the footage was recorded four days earlier.
It was used by the defendant who “peddled a false alibi” by pretending to be gaming during the period he carried out the murder, the prosecution said.
An external hard drive, SD memory card and Xbox were among the devices analysed by Matthews.
The detective told jurors that the stream was broadcast on McCullagh’s YouTube account, Vote Saxon07, on December 18th at 6pm.
It lasted six hours, four minutes and 47 seconds.
“There is extensive evidence it was pre-recorded and later streamed as a live event,” he said.
Software called open broadcast software was used to stream the event, which is used for a more “sophisticated” presentation online, the jury heard.
Matthews explained that when someone live streams there would be an indication of a break from one scene to another.
“You’d see them going through the different tweaks and adjustments needed for a live broadcast,” he said.
Referring to the defendant’s YouTube footage on the night of the murder, he added: “There is a lack of user activity. There is no user activity whatsoever.”
An external webcam camera was connected to the defendant’s computer on December 14th, 2022, the jury was told.
The detective said the footage was recorded on December 14th and saved as a video file before being completed “in the early hours” of December 15th.
The file was deleted and removed to the device’s recycle bin on December 19th.
“For a file to be removed, it requires the user to manually delete it,” he added.
Earlier this week, the court heard that the defendant admitted to police in February 2023 that the stream was pre-recorded.
He said he fell asleep after drinking too much alcohol on the night of the killing
The trial resumes on Monday.
