A YouTuber accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend recorded the livestream he used as an alibi four days earlier, a court heard.
Stephen McCullagh appeared to be broadcasting himself live playing Grand Theft Auto and drinking Guinness in his house in County Antrim while Natalie McNally was being killed around 30 miles away in Lurgan, County Armagh.
McCullagh, 36, has denied murdering his 32-year-old partner, who was 15 weeks pregnant with their son.
But the prosecution argued the stream was pre-recorded and posted as if it was live on 18 December 2022, while McCullagh disguised himself and took a bus to Lurgan before walking to Ms McNally’s house and attacking her.
He later returned home by taxi, before going back to Ms McNally’s house the next evening and calling 999, it was claimed.
Earlier this week the trial heard Ms McNally was subjected to a prolonged assault, suffering stab wounds to the neck, strangulation and heavy blows to the head.
Prosecutors allege her murder was “planned, calculated and premeditated, one which he [McCullagh] hoped to get away with”.
On Wednesday, the court was shown over an hour of footage from the supposed livestream, which showed McCullagh playing Grand Theft Auto and Robot Wars while drinking Guinness and Baileys, and making references to broadcasting live.
During evidence heard the following day, digital forensic analyst Detective Constable Matthews said his examination of the defendant’s computer “provided extensive evidence indicating that the broadcast was pre-recorded and later streamed as a live event”.
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DC Matthews said probe of the computer indicated the six-hour broadcast had been recorded on 14 December and saved as a video file.
He said it was then broadcast as live on McCullagh’s YouTube account on 18 December.
And DC Matthews explained the software showed no signs of user activity between 6pm and just after midnight on 19 December.
The video file was then deleted in the early hours of 19 December and then removed from the computer’s recycling bin.
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“Activity relating to video recording was taking place on the 14th, the creation of the pre-recorded video file was completed on the 15th, in the early hours,” he said.
“There was the creation of a social media advert between the 14th and 17th and a live stream of a pre-recorded video file was carried out between the 18th and 19th, and finally the deletion of the said file in the early hours of the 19th, 2022.”
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The trial was also shown clips from CCTV and doorbell cameras on the evening of 18 December showing a person walking from the street to a bus stop where they paid cash to take a bus to Lurgan and then walked to Ms McNally’s street.
Later footage showed a figure wearing a different outfit and walking from Ms McNally’s street into Lurgan, where they got into a taxi which was seen in another clip arriving on McCullagh’s street.
The trial continues.
