A man who murdered his partner at their home in Lurgan, Co Armagh has been sentenced to life in prison.
The 36-year-old, Stephen McCullagh, was found guilty for murdering his partner, Natalie McNally, who was 32 and 15 weeks pregnant when she was attacked.
McCullagh was told in the court that he must serve 31 years before he can be considered for parole.
He was found guilty of murdering Ms McNally by a jury at Belfast Crown Court earlier this year. McCullagh claimed that he was streaming himself playing games on his YouTube channel at the time and denied the murder.
However, the live stream that McCullagh was referring to was later found by the police to have been recorded four days before and broadcast as live on 18 December 2022.
Mr Justice Patrick Kinney described the murder as "cold blooded" and that the sentence "cannot possibly reflect the value of Natalie's life, or indeed that of her unborn child, Dean" or meet the family’s sense of "grief and loss".
"Stephen McCullagh, you have committed a brutal and senseless murder, you planned this murder in remorseless detail. You attacked someone you profess to love in a frenzied assault, which was characterised by its excessive and gratuitous violence," he said.
"Despite that frenzy, the killing was cold-blooded and calculated, as evidenced by the extensive planning leading up to the murder and your actions afterwards. Your behaviour towards the McNally family showed your absolute determination to cover your tracks," he continued.
The judge said that it was "difficult" to find words to describe the crime. "The defendant did not just kill Natalie McNally, her unborn child also died as a result of the murderous assault. The defendant was fully aware that Natalie was pregnant. He intended to kill her and he knew that her baby, at such an early stage of the pregnancy, would have no chance of surviving the attack," he said.
