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Court heard man charged with McNally murder used gaming live stream as alibi

Court heard man charged with McNally murder used gaming live stream as alibi
Natalie McNally death, © PA Wire/PA Images

A man has been remanded in custody, charged with the murder of Natalie McNally.

She was killed in her home in Lurgan in County Armagh in December, when she was 15-weeks pregnant.

A court heard Stephen McCullagh from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn allegedly used a live stream of him playing video games for six hours as an alibi.

Crime Correspondent with the Belfast Telegraph is Allison Morris was in court.

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"Police say that McCullagh is now the only suspect.

"He has been charged with murder.

"They were able to take his computer. They seized that and sent it off to their investigators who were able to show that that computer was not being used during those 6 hours other than to play a recording of a live stream video game."

According to Breaking News, the footage appeared to show him playing the video game Grand Theft Auto for six hours.

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"A senior detective told the court that extensive technical examination of his devices by cyber experts has indicated the footage was prerecorded and played out as if it was live."

Phone Recording

Allison continued to say the court heard about a visit of 32 year-old Stephen McCullagh from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn to the McNally family home.

"Last week, police said that he called to their home and claimed that he had forgotten his phone.

For 40 minutes, (he) left the phone in their house, before returning for it.

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"When police seized his devices, they found that he had actually been recording conversations from inside Natalie's parents home and you can hear the muffled sounds of his parents speaking.

"Police are claiming during this bail hearing that that was a sign he was trying to record the conversations to see if  they were talking about him as a suspect."

The man was remanded in custody to appear before Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on February 24th via video link.

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