An ex-girlfriend of a man accused of murdering his pregnant partner has claimed he punched her during a suicide attempt to “knock sense” into her, Belfast Crown Court has heard.
Jurors were told that Stephen McCullagh allegedly assaulted his former partner after she tried to jump out of a car he was driving, telling her to kill herself in her “own time”.
McCullagh (36), of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, Co Antrim, has denied murdering Natalie McNally (32) at her home in Silverwood Green, Lurgan, on December 18th, 2022.
She was 15 weeks pregnant. McCullagh was the father of her unborn child.
READ MORE
Giving evidence on Friday during the second week of the murder trial, the former partner said she was in an “on-off” relationship with the defendant for seven years between 2015 and 2022.
McCullagh had his first date with McNally in August, 2022, after they met on the dating app Bumble.
Reporting restrictions were placed on naming the accused’s ex-girlfriend, who appeared remotely.
Jurors heard claims that McCullagh secretly recorded counselling sessions she received after she lost a baby in 2022.
Detectives discovered the recordings on McCullagh’s computer during their investigation into McNally’s murder, prosecution barrister Charles MacCreanor said.
[ Murder accused spent time with Natalie McNally’s body while ‘distraught’ at wakeOpens in new window ]
The accused’s former partner made a report to police on December 31st, 2019, about an incident at the defendant’s home the previous evening, the court was told.
An argument broke out when she admitted to the accused that she shared photographs of herself with another man during a period when they were separated.
The witness said she tried to reconcile with McCullagh but he “yanked” her phone away and pushed her into a bath tub.
The former partner told the jury of six men and six women that McCullagh admitted he had tried to have sex with another woman but told her did not because “he said he loved me”.
Following the row he drove the woman back home, and during the journey she told him she wanted to kill herself.
When she tried to jump out of the car on the M1 motorway, she claimed he started hitting her across the face and said he “didn’t want it to be a murder car”.
“He punched me in my temple ... and said, ‘You can kill yourself in your own time,’” she told the court.
Within two days of making the complaint to police, she withdrew her statement because she “didn’t want Stephen getting into trouble”.
“Back then I thought him hitting me was just him trying to knock sense into me, because that’s what he said,” she said.
Defence barrister John Kearney said it is “accepted” McCullagh did slap her but denied punching her.
The witness told him she felt a “hard punch on the side of my head”.
“He did stop me from killing myself but the slaps and punches were really hard to comprehend,” she said.
The witness also said that McCullagh threatened to send the images on her phone to family, friends and work colleagues, as well as burn her personal possessions.
When the pair reconciled during Covid, she received counselling after experiencing a stillbirth on January 7th, 2022.
Kearney said it was the defendant’s case that he had offered to tape some of the counselling sessions because she was struggling to remember what was said during them.
“He never discussed with me recording my sessions,” she said.
The trial continues.
