Case against man charged with murder of Lurgan mother-to-be Natalie McNally will not be heard before Christmas

Stephen McCullagh, aged 33, of Woodland Gardens, did not appear before Craigavon Magistrates Court on Friday. He remains in custody following his arrest earlier this year.

Natalie was found brutally murdered in her home at Silverwood Leaves in Lurgan just after Christmas last year.

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The court heard that a Preliminary Enquiry had been scheduled for December 1 this year but a Prosecutor told the court that this was ‘not realistic’.

McCullagh’s lawyer said that a “fulsome update would be appreciated”.

The Prosecutor said: “There’s a huge amount of information to go through, specifically in relation to telecom packages. There are a lot of exhibits with queries particularly in relation to telecommunication packages. Those will take some time to be received and for the police to go through due to the volume of information.”

District Judge Bernie Kelly asked where this information was to be received from. As the Prosecutor searched for the information, the District Judge suggested that it might be better to adjourn the matter for two weeks for an officer in charge to attend to answer all these questions “so we might get a better picture of what the overall situation is and when you might expect to receive outstanding documents and materials”.

The case was adjourned until December 17 with the officer in charge to attend. “So we can work out, hopefully, a timetable,” said the District Judge.