Ex-partner of Natalie McNally tells court he did not kill her

An ex-partner of Natalie McNally has told a court that he did not kill the Co Armagh woman.

The man, who cannot be named, also told Belfast Crown Court that he did not recruit someone else to kill Ms McNally, and denied that he had injured his hands on the night she was murdered.

Ms McNally, 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed at her home in Lurgan on December 18 2022.

Her partner, Stephen McCullagh, 36, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, is on trial for her murder.

He has denied the charge.

The ex-boyfriend had previously given evidence that he had told some “white lies'” about the amount of contact he had with Ms McNally when giving a police statement in the days after her death.

Defence barrister John Kearney KC returned to questioning him about the police interviews on Wednesday.

Mr Kearney showed the witness photographs of injuries to his hands during the police interviews.

The witness said he had sustained the injuries after punching walls.

The barrister asked him if he was sure he had not sustained the injuries on the evening that Ms McNally was murdered.

He responded: “No, I definitely didn’t get them on that night.”

Mr Kearney said: “Was it you that killed Natalie?”

“No,” he said.

Mr Kearney asked: “Were you present at Silverwood (Green) on the 18th?”

“No,” again the witness replied.

“Did you recruit anyone else to help you on the 18th?” the barrister asked.

The witness again responded: “No.”

The barrister continued: “You understand the defendant’s case is that he didn’t do this, and he wasn’t there?”

The witness said: “He done it.”

He then yelled towards McCullagh in the court dock: “You done it.”

Mr Kearney said: “You understand that it was and remains his case that he believes it was you?”

“I understand that,” he answered.

“Is that why you lied to police initially?” Mr Kearney asked.

The witness said: “I told police the truth, where I was, hour by hour for four days.

“The only thing I lied about was when I had last seen Natalie, which I corrected when I was arrested – and about how much contact.

“I told the truth as well as I could remember.”

He then turned again towards McCullagh and shouted: “You killed her.”

Prosecuting barrister Charles MacCreanor KC asked the witness if he was happy being referred to as her boyfriend when he was with Ms McNally.

He said: “I didn’t really know what the craic of our relationship status was.

“Whenever I was living with Natalie we were both still on Tinder, we both knew it and were laughing about it.

“I was living with Natalie and sleeping with Natalie. We were going out and doing things.

“This is why I feel so bad because I feel like I’ve taken advantage of her.

“She would have 100% considered me her boyfriend and I didn’t consider her my girlfriend at times.”

The barrister told the witness that McCullagh had “stated his belief” that he had killed Ms McNally.

He said: “No, no I didn’t.”

Later, a former partner of the witness gave evidence about the nature of their relationship.

The court saw a video she had taken of her then boyfriend sleeping on the sofa on the night Ms McNally was killed, the 2022 World Cup Final.

She told the court that she moved into the bedroom around 10pm that evening, leaving her partner on the sofa, but was still awake when he also came to the bedroom around 1am.

The witness also said that she had been tracking her partner’s location without his knowledge through a mutual Google account because she “was suspicious about him seeing Natalie”.

She said “there was risk of us breaking apart” over her “suspicions about him potentially sleeping with other people”.

Mr Kearney asked the witness about a statement she gave to police and when asked if she told the whole truth she replied “no”.

She said she had lied when she told police she was not living with this partner at the time because he was in a custody battle with another ex-partner, not Ms McNally.

“I told the police I wasn’t actually residing in that flat and that was I think the only significant lie,” she said.

Mr Kearney then asked about where the witness told police her former partner “hit and beat” her.

She then told the court this was not true, adding “I was in a bad mental state when I made that statement so no I didn’t really know what I was doing”.

The trial resumes tomorrow.