Natalie McNally: 'We treated her like a princess, we'll love her forever'

It's Sunday 18 December 2022 and Lionel Messi is lifting the World Cup trophy on TV while a delighted Natalie McNally watches on. The 32-year-old is a huge fan of the Argentinian footballer. She's in her parents' living room, they've just eaten a roast chicken dinner and Christmas is just one week away. She is 15 weeks pregnant and is planning to call her baby son Dean. But in a few hours, Natalie would be dead. She was beaten, strangled and stabbed by her partner Stephen McCullagh, the father of her unborn child. "She was so happy that night," her mother Bernie said in January 2023. "She said: 'Mummy, I'll see you on Monday or Tuesday.' And that was her last words to me." McCullagh's conviction on Monday brought the McNally family's three-year journey for justice to its final chapter. The image of a family united in grief and determination for justice following her death matched the closeness they had in her life. When Natalie said goodbye to her family for the final time, she travelled the short distance to her home in Silverwood Green – a red brick townhouse testament to the success of her career in the marketing department of bus and train operator Translink. But, it was her pa