A lab worker obsessed with violent porn and serial killers was branded a ‘monster’ by his victim’s sister, who told him: ‘I hope she haunts you forever.’
Ross McCullum, 30, throttled 23-year-old HR worker Megan Newborough then cut her throat after inviting her to his home in Leicestershire on August 6 last year.
He later tried to blame her for the appalling attack, claiming she sent him into a ‘blind rage’ by triggering memories of alleged previous sexual abuse during oral sex.
But jurors at Leicester Crown Court took less than two hours to convict him of murder after his ‘detailed, calculated and long-lasting series of deceits’ were dismantled over a seven-week trial.
McCullam was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Sentencing, Judge Philip Head told McCullam: ‘It was her dreadful misfortune to become involved in a relationship with you.’
He said: ‘I regard you cutting her throat as a very substantial aggravating factor.
‘It was the truly dreadful and sustained way you ensured that intention to kill was achieved.’
Despite McCullam’s obsession with violent pornography, online searches of serial killers including Ian Huntley and Peter Sutcliffe, and what Ms Newborough’s family called the ‘brutalised’ treatment of her body – which had 28 injuries from head to toe – the judge said there was ‘no sure evidence to justify the conclusion the killing itself involved either sadistic or sexual conduct’.
The judge also said he could not be sure McCullam intended to decapitate his victim, although Ms Newborough’s family were certain that was violent McCullam’s intention, telling him so in court during their powerful victim impact statements.
Her sister Claire said the family had been put through ‘seven weeks of hell’ after having to listen to details of the ‘horrific and barbaric’ murder during a trial.
She said: ‘We fully believe the defendant tried to decapitate Megan, this brutalisation of my sister’s body is something we will never be able to come to terms with.
‘She was cruelly dumped, topless, in a cold, dark field, where the defendant thought she would never be found.
‘The thing Megan hated most was feeling cold, and as her big sister, the very thought of her so cold and alone for all those hours, has destroyed me.’
Turning to McCullam, who was sitting crying to himself in the dock a few short yards across the courtroom, she described the killer as the very ‘definition’ of a ‘monster’.
‘You are an unpredictable menace, a danger to women, obsessed with serial killers, murderers of women and you appear to crave some sort of notoriety,’ she said.
‘We have no idea what Megan possibly saw in you. She always thought she could fix people, but fixing evil people is not possible.
‘You tricked her, murdered her, brutalised her and left her in such an undignified way.’
'Ruthless' McCullam 'would have killed again'
Speaking after the conviction, Detective Inspector Jenni Heggs, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, described McCullam as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ and believed he would have ‘gone on to kill again’.
She said: ‘I think he has enjoyed it and been sexually aroused by it, by what he’s done. That’s a dangerous mix.’
McCullam and Ms Newboough, who met while both working at brickmaker Ibstock, had only been seeing each other three weeks.
Not content with strangling the 23-year-old – McCullam then used a carving knife to cut her throat ‘in a sawing motion’, jurors heard.
McCullam claimed he only used a knife because he was scared people – including Ms Newborough – might be ‘cross’ and ‘angry’ at him for having throttled her.
But jurors heard how the young woman had ‘left clues’ to the truth by the defensive wounds and marks on her body inflicted at McCullam’s parents’ home, where he struck.
There were signs Ms Newborough had fought desperately to fend off McCullam in the lounge.
Prosecutor John Cammegh KC branded McCullam a ‘sadistic killer’ who had acted with ‘ruthless’ intent, telling jurors: ‘When it comes to women – this is a very dangerous man.’
The lab technician likely murdered Ms Newborough, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, shortly after she arrived around 8.08pm but no later than 8.49pm on August 6.
Footage captured on her parents’ Ring doorbell camera showed the last time she was seen alive, as she walked to her car.
After the killing, he attempted to clean up blood in the lounge, then put her body headfirst into the footwell of her vehicle.
Before driving off, McCullam – who had no driving licence – also sent a text message, asking if she had made it home safe, including one reading ‘You are amazing’, along with kisses and a smiling emoji.
McCullam, who lived in virtual squalor in his litter-strewn bedroom, then drove Ms Newborough’s body to a country lane – throwing out her phone on the way – where he callously dumped her remains near Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire.
He changed into a clean set of clothes before abandoning her car near Loughborough College campus, then ordering a taxi to drop him 100 yards from his front door.
He then sent text messages asking if she had made it home safe.
McCullam had also conducted online searches linked to serial killer Levi Bellfield, Soham killer Ian Huntley and Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
The 30-year-old, of Coalville, Leicestershire, was obsessed with pornography and sexual imagery, and masturbated for 17 minutes to explicit only hours after the killing, then laughed in front of the jury about it, telling them: ‘It relieved the stress… I know it looks bad.’
McCullam claimed the murderous attack was triggered because he suffered PTSD, having been a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
But the prosecution said those claims were a ‘pack of lies’ McCullam used to cover up for his violent attack.
Instead, the Crown alleged, McCullam murdered Ms Newborough because of his anger at being sexually impotent immediately prior to the attack, and on an earlier occasion the weekend before.
Prosecutors pointed to his having ordered tadalafil pills off the internet, used to treat erectile dysfunction.
Egotistical McCullam was eventually undone by the changing accounts he gave police in interview, and later in the court witness box.
On remand, McCullam also bragged to a cellmate about using the knife, and suggested he would use his mental health as a ‘tool’ at trial.
In another incident, he was overheard on a prison landing by a guard laughing as he told other inmates: ‘If you carry on like this, you’ll end up like Megan.’
Another prison guard also heard him joking openly with other inmates about the killing, telling fellow inmates: ‘If I had gone a bit further I’d have taken her head off.’
Ms Newborough’s father, Anthony, wept as he said the family had lost their ‘beautiful treasured daughter Megan, in such horrific circumstances’.
He added: ‘We are a large and close family who have been ripped apart by one evil human being.
‘It is like a horror film, but it is a true story, Megan’s story, our story.
‘These events have caused us so much pain and anguish we struggle that Megan, in her last moments, would have been so frightened.
‘She was loved by so many and touched so many lives for those she met and left a great gaping hole that can never be filled.
‘She was our princess and the defendant with his evil hands, his strength, together with his evil mind has taken her away from us forever.’
Outside court, her younger brother John had paid tribute to ‘exceptional’ Miss Newborough, ‘loved by all’, who was ready to move into her first home two weeks after she was killed.
‘She was so eager to start the rest of her life, she ended up losing the one she was living,’ he said.
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