The man accused of murdering his pregnant partner, Natalie McNally, was “distraught” at her wake and spent time alone with her remains at the family home, Belfast Crown Court has been told.
Jurors heard Stephen McCullagh was welcomed by the deceased’s parents into their house in Co Armagh on Christmas Day 2022 on the eve of the funeral.
McCullagh (36), of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, Co Antrim, has denied murdering McNally (32) at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, on December 18th, 2022.
He was arrested on the evening of the murder, but was told on Christmas Eve that he was no longer a suspect in the case.
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During the second week of the trial, Bernadette McNally said she was “devastated” and concerned for McCullagh on the night of Natalie’s wake. He asked permission to come to their Lurgan home and arrived dressed in a suit he had worn to Natalie’s birthday, she said.
When asked by prosecution counsel Charles MacCreanor whether McCullagh had been left alone with the coffin, she confirmed that he had. She said she did not know “how it came about”.
The jury of six men and six women heard McCullagh spent around 15-20 minutes alone with Natalie in the wake room.
Bernadette McNally said McCullagh told her he did not want to attend the funeral the next day as “he didn’t want to be recognised”. McCullagh worked in The Belfast Telegraph and told the family he would lose his job “just for being arrested”, jurors heard.
Noel McNally, Natalie’s father, said police had informed the family McCullagh was “no longer a suspect so we felt it was appropriate he come to our house” for the wake.
“The defendant was upset and a lot of people were giving him hugs and consoling him whenever he came into the room,” he said.
Defence barrister John Kearney suggested that McCullagh had said the funeral would be “too much for him” and he would be too upset to attend.
“As far as we were concerned, he had nothing to do with her death and was a grieving partner and a grieving father-to-be. We always treated him with the greatest respect,” Noel McNally said.
He said his daughter was fond of animals and had an Alsatian dog, River, and two cats. Reading, music and travelling with family to Everton and GAA matches were other passions, the court heard.
Natalie McNally watched the World Cup final between Argentina and France at her parents home, sitting beside River and her father, hours before she was killed.
Her parents had met McCullagh twice before Christmas night. He and Natalie began a relationship in August 2022 after meeting on the dating app Bumble.
McCullagh visited the McNally family home “at least three times” in January 2023 and showed Bernadette McNally an engagement ring, the court heard.
He was the father of the deceased’s unborn child, a baby boy, and said he planned to renovate his home and was looking at integrated schools in Lisburn, jurors were told.
Asked by MacCreanor if there was an occasion when he showed an image or photograph of their unborn child, Bernadette McNally said he had told her “‘this is what baby Dean would have looked like’.”
The image was generated using photographs of Natalie and him.
She became emotional when recalling a conversation she had with McCullagh about the moment he said he found her daughter following the attack.
“He said her face was in a dog bowl, it was full of blood,” McNally said. “I know that stuck in my head.”
She broke down when the prosecution barrister asked her how she had coped since the murder.
“Not very good. It has been devastating,” she said.
McCullagh also spoke about an “abusive” ex-boyfriend who he claimed had “harassed” her daughter, she said.
The deceased’s brothers, Declan and Brendan McNally, were among other family members who gave evidence on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Declan McNally described how they “cleared out Natalie’s wake room” for the accused on Christmas evening. He said McCullagh “came across as very distraught” and he was in “almost daily contact” by text message with the accused after they exchanged numbers.
He became emotional in the witness box while recalling when McCullagh asked to take him to visit his sister’s grave.
“I let him have some time alone at the grave. I went over to him, he appeared completely distraught,” he said. “He was saying, ‘how could anyone do this to her’ and describing how happy he and Natalie were together ...
“He said he found her with her head in a dog bowl. He said someone had left her like an animal.”
Jurors also heard about a vigil held at Stormont for Natalie McNally, which the accused attended with the McNally family on January 5th, 2023. At the vigil, which called for an end to violence against women and girls, McCullagh was “happy to be introduced as Natalie’s partner” and showed people a baby scan, the deceased’s brother told the court.
He added that the defendant told him he believed that an ex-boyfriend went “to Natalie’s house where she told him she was pregnant” that led him to “get into a rage and kill her”.
In his evidence, Brendan McNally said he remembered during the wake how the accused was “constantly checking media” about the prominence of the murder on news websites.
“He said he noticed it was ‘dropping down’ (in terms of listing stories by interest) ... and that his heart sank at the time,” he told the court.
McCullagh believed the murder should be “an international news story”, he told the court.
“We treated him very compassionately,” he added.
The defendant also told Brendan McNally about his “grievances” with police following his arrest when he claimed he was strip-searched and left in a dark room by himself, the court heard.
Among the other witnesses was Ann Anderson, an aunt of the deceased. She met the accused for the first time in the kitchen of the family home in Lurgan on January 14th, 2023, where he spoke of his feelings for McNally.
“He said he treated her like a princess,” she said.
At a rally held in Lurgan Park in memory of Natalie McNally on January 28th, Anderson approached McCullagh who was “wearing a number of badges” on his jacket.
Everton football badges were among them. “He said these were Natalie’s badges, he wanted to have a piece of Natalie on him,” she told the court.
The trial continues.
