Stephen McCullagh has been sentenced to 31 years in prison for murdering his pregnant girlfriend, Natalie McNally. The 36-year-old was told by a judge that the killing was brutal, frenzied and planned in remorseless detail.

The sentence brings to a close a case that drew intense scrutiny because McNally, 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, was beaten, strangled and stabbed at her home in Lurgan in December 2022. McCullagh, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, had faced trial for more than four weeks before a jury took just over two hours in March to convict him.

For McNally’s family, the sentencing was the moment they had been waiting for since the murder. Catherine Kierans said the proceedings concluded with McCullagh held to account for a vicious killing in which he showed no remorse, and said the level of planning and sophistication in the case was unprecedented. Her words matched the court’s finding that this was no sudden eruption of violence but a cold-blooded attack carried out with calculation.

Mr Justice Kinney said McCullagh’s culpability was extremely high and pointed to the way he tried to implicate an innocent third party, McNally’s ex-boyfriend. He also referred to McCullagh’s live stream and to the manipulation of other people, including friends, McNally herself, her family and police. That conduct sat uneasily beside the prosecution’s case that the murder was marked by a striking lack of remorse.

The sentencing leaves one part of the case settled: the punishment for the killing of a young woman who was described in court as strong, loving and independent. What it does not answer is how McCullagh managed to sustain the false alibi for so long before police uncovered his fake YouTube cover story, a piece of the case that turned suspicion into proof and helped bring him to justice.