Natalie McNally murder investigation ‘matter of highest priority’, court is told

With several relatives of pregnant murder victim sitting in the public gallery of Craigavon Magistrates Court on Friday, April 21, a senior prosecutor said there had been discussions with police about how the investigation will progress and a timescale for aspects of it.

"Obviously it’s a huge and complex investigation,” she told District Judge Bernie Kelly, adding that “the police say that being realistic, they could get a file to me by the end of the summer…and I will endeavour to have cleared my decks so that I can start work on it immediately.”

Alleged killer McCullagh was not produced to the videolink booth at Craigavon Magistrates Court where his case was briefly mentioned.

McCullagh, from Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, is in custody accused of the murder of 32-year-old mum-to-be Natalie McNally on 18 December last year.

Ms McNally was 15 weeks pregnant with McCullagh’s child when she was stabbed in her home on Silverwood Green in Lurgan on December 18.

The district judge told the senior PPS lawyer while she accepted the complexities of the investigation, she wanted a timetable of when the various reports will be received “so that the court can deal with any slippage.”

She said it was her experience that “slippage” often occurred when it came what she described as “scientific evidence” such as pathology, post mortem, computer or mobile phone evidence and the results can then lead to further examinations being required.

The lawyer assured District Judge Kelly that “these are being looked at as a matter of high priority” but also warned that “our case prep department has a serious back log and preparing a big file like this do take a number of weeks.”

Remanding McCullagh back into custody, District Judge Kelly put the case back to May 19 but asked the PPS to “get a bit more information” about what examinations are being conducted and when the results are expected.