A live stream lie unravelled: how Stephen McCullagh tried to get away with pregnant girlfriend’s murder

YouTube gamer planned audacious alibi, appeared grief-stricken at wake and apparently spied on victim’s family

• Man who used false gaming alibi found guilty of Natalie McNally’s murder

To get away with murder, Stephen McCullagh planned an audacious alibi: he would trick the world into thinking he was at home livestreaming a video game when in fact he was 17 miles away, extinguishing a life.

He prerecorded a six-hour session of him playing Grand Theft Auto and uploaded it on the night of 18 December 2022, to give the impression to his YouTube channel’s 37,000 subscribers that he was at home in Lisburn, County Antrim, wearing a Santa hat, eating snacks, sipping Guinness and making jokes. “I am not leaving the house tonight,” he said.