A woman who had an on/off relationship with a man currently on trial for murder told a jury today (Friday) how she was slapped and punched by him during a car journey.
The witness was called to give evidence on the ninth day of a trial concerning the murder of pregnant Lurgan woman Natalie McNally.
The 32-year-old was beaten, stabbed and strangled in her Silverwood Green home in Lurgan on the evening of Sunday December 18, 2022.
The father of her unborn child, 36-year-old Stephen McCullagh from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, has been accused of and has denied her murder.
A former girlfriend of McCullagh’s, who gave her evidence via a video link, was asked about two days in December 2019 that she spent with him.
She said that during these two days, McCullagh found images on her phone she had sent to another man and that he then threatened to send these images to his family, her family and her work colleagues.
The woman also said that McCullagh threatened to burn sentimental items of hers and that during an early-morning car journey, after she tried to jump out of his moving vehicle, McCullagh pulled her back in then slapped and punched her.
She was also asked about a recording McCullagh made of her when she had a home counselling session following the loss of their unborn son.
The witness was questioned first by Crown barrister Charles MacCreanor KC.
She confirmed she and McCullagh met in 2015 and that over the course of the following seven years they had an on/off relationship.
Mr MacCreanor then asked her about a specific period of December 30 and 31, 2019 which was spent in McCullagh’s home.
Saying “we were trying to reconcile the relationship”, she said they had a conversation about “talking to any other people” and that she told McCullagh she hadn’t.
Accepting this was not true, the woman said she had been “sharing images of myself” with another male.
The woman said she then asked McCullagh if he would take a look at her phone as it was running slowly and “that was when Stephen had found the images and pictures I was sending to this other man.”
She said that after he discovered these, McCullagh was “upset” and that he “started crying and started shouting and just got angry.”
The woman told Belfast Crown Court that she tried to calm him down and explain herself but “it wasn’t working.”
Following this, she said McCullagh told her to pack up her stuff and unsuccessful efforts were made to contact her mother to come and collect her and bring her home.
She said that after McCullagh went out to the back garden for a smoke she tried “gently pulling him back” so they could talk and try and reconcile but that McCullagh pushed her.
During the course of the day of December 30, the woman said McCullagh pushed her with his elbow in the bathroom and that he also punched the bed whilst shouting and asking why she had sent images to another man.
The witness was then asked about an incident during a car journey which occurred in the early hours of the following morning on the approach to the M1 motorway.
The woman said that as McCullagh was driving her home “I started saying I just didn’t want to live any more and that I wanted to kill myself so I tried to open the car and Stephen stopped the car abruptly, pulled me back in and started hitting me across the face.
“He was shouting ‘No, I don’t want you killing yourself. I don’t want this to be a murder car’ and he kept on hitting me while he was saying this.
“Then he punched me to my temple and after that he was still angry and shouting at me … that I could kill myself in my own time.”
She said McCullagh then drove her home, told her to get out of the car then drove away “pretty quickly.”
The woman confirmed that she made a statement to the PSNI later in the day of December 31 and that two days later she withdrew the statement.
Asked by Mr MacCreanor why she withdrew the statement, the woman said at that point she felt they could still reconcile.
She added: “I just didn’t want him going to prison because back then I thought him hitting me was just trying to knock sense into me because that’s what he said.”
The witness was also asked about the relationship re-starting after they began talking again in 2021 and she confirmed this was the case.
She also confirmed that she suffered the stillbirth of their unborn son in January 2022.
Asked about events leading up to the summer of 2022, the woman said she was back living in McCullagh’s and she sought counselling “to try and seek answers” regarding the loss of their baby.
Saying sessions were held in the living room, she said when they were taking place McCullagh was in the bedroom or in the garage.
She said that during that summer the arguments started again and that they separated for good in July 2022.
She was then asked by Mr MacCreanor if she recalled police calling at her home in 2023 when she was informed the counselling sessions at McCullagh’s home had been recorded and these recordings were found on his laptop.
Confirming this was the case, she said she didn’t know they had been recorded and that McCullagh never asked her if he could record them.
The woman was also questioned by defence barrister John Kearney KC who asked her about her seven-year relationship with McCullagh and she accepted he helped her with her struggles with mental health.
Mr Kearney then asked her about the events of December 30 and 31, 2019 and told her McCullagh had “no recall” of punching the bed and had “no recollection” of the physical interaction in the bathroom which the defendant claimed “didn’t happen.”
Regarding the car journey in the early hours of December 31, the woman confirmed she was wearing a dressing gown and pyjamas, that she tried to jump from McCullagh’s moving car and that she knew this was dangerous.
Mr Kearney then asked her if McCullagh “saved you from yourself” by pulling her back into the car, and she replied “yes” but added he then started slapping her then punched her to her temple.
To this, Mr Kearney said: “I have to suggest that didn’t happen, the punch.”
Rejecting her claim that his client told her to kill herself in her own time, Mr Kearney said McCullagh “did not want you to self-harm” and that her attempt to move out of McCullagh’s moving vehicle was “a shocking situation for him to have to deal with.”
He then asked her “if he hadn’t stopped you, you would have jumped out, wouldn’t you?” to which she replied “yes.”
She added: “Looking back, the thought of it was assault. Yes he did pull me in and save me from committing suicide but the slaps and the punch were still really hard to comprehend.”
Also called to give evidence was a Fonacab driver who was asked what he remembered about the evening of Sunday December 18, 2022.
The witness recalled driving his grey Skoda Octavia along Carnegie Street and then picking up a fare outside Fa Joe’s public bar in Lurgan.
Asked by Mr MacCreanor where his customer was, he replied: “I believe he came from standing by the entrance to the pub. He was alone.
“He got into the passenger seat. I didn’t recognise him as a regular customer.”
The fare was picked up at 10.46pm and the drop-off time was at 11.13pm.
The taxi driver said the only thing he recalled was that he was worried the fare would fall off the seat as he was a “big person”.
He remembered the customer had a bag with him and he put it down by his feet in the footwell.
The witness said the customer asked him to take him to Lisburn and to use the Moira/Lisburn Road as the best route.
“He had said that his mother was unwell and the conversation was that everything had been left for him to sort out. He was sort of annoyed that he had to go to Lisburn to sort this out.”
He confirmed to the court that he didn’t know where the “end stop” was for the fare and just followed the directions from his customer.
The witness recalled making a couple of wrong turns on the journey.
He said the journey came to an end when the customer said to him that this was the address and he pulled up on the left side of the street beside a hedge and behind it was a small bungalow.
Asked to describe the hedge, the cabbie said: “I think I recall it being very high and I was unable to see the bungalow.
“The customer said he hoped the family had money to pay for this (fare). He left the car, went into the entrance and came back with the money.”
The driver said the passenger left his bag in the footwell and some customers do that as a sign that they are coming back with the money and then retrieve the bag.
“He came back after a couple of minutes. I would say no more than five minutes, probably.”
He recalled he was paid in cash, adding that normally a trip from Lurgan to Lisburn at that time would have been around £20.
The witness said the customer retrieved his bag and went into the bungalow where he had pulled up and stopped his taxi.
Asked to describe his customer’s manner during the trip, he replied: “He was very polite but there were a couple of points when I made a wrong turn and the customer got a little anxious and irate and said: ‘You went the wrong way. It’s OK. A lot of people make that mistake’.”
Under cross-examination from defence counsel John Kearney KC, the witness confirmed he could not be accurate that the drop-off time was 11.13pm.
Asked did he tell police that his customer spoke with a local Lurgan accent, the witness said what he was trying to say was that his fare did not speak with a foreign accent.
In a statement from a Fonacab IT manager, it was said that the fare picked up outside Fa Joe’s had been dropped off at Woodside Gardens in Lisburn, according to the Skoda Octavia’s GPS system.
