Vicar’s granddaughter ‘murdered’ by lover she’d fallen for at work
A VICAR’S granddaughter was strangled and stabbed by her lover after he stopped taking medication for his attention disorder, a court heard yesterday.
HR adviser Megan Newborough, 23, had begun a relationship with laboratory assistant Ross McCullum only a month before she was killed.
The 30-year-old invited work colleague Miss McCullum to his home for the first time – while his parents were out – on the night he launched his attack ‘with great violence’, jurors were told.
He strangled her before slashing her throat with a carving knife 14 times to ‘make sure she was dead’, Leicester Crown Court was told.
He allegedly bundled her body into her own white Citroen C3 and dumped it in dense undergrowth down a quiet country lane. McCullum then embarked on a ‘carefully calculated’ plan to cover up crime, making a series of texts and calls to her phone pretending to be concerned for her welfare, it was claimed.
He has admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming a ‘loss of control’ or abnormality of mind meant he was not able to form an intent to cause serious harm. But, opening the case against him yesterday prosecutor John Cammegh said ‘the violent manner of her death leaves no room for doubt’ what the defendant intended to do.
The court heard that McCullum suffered periodically from depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – and admitted he had stopped taking his medication several weeks before killing Miss Newborough.
Jurors were told Miss Newborough and McCullum worked for Ibstock Brick in Leicester, and were in a ‘relationship of sorts’ for around a month. McCullum had joined the firm as a labourer and cleaner but impressed with his attitude and progressed to a lab role testing samples.
Miss Newborough, who was described as a ‘genuinely well liked, gregarious but responsible young woman’, met McCullum in June last year when she and a colleague visited the laboratory to carry out an audit. Mr Cammegh told jurors ‘things developed at work’ between the pair over the following weeks, and on two occasions they were caught kissing but it was a relationship ‘founded on physical attraction than any real emotional connection’. A colleague of McCullum saw them as an ‘unlikely couple’ as ‘they were such very different people’.
During the brief relationship, Miss Newborough, who was about to buy her own house and was set for a promotion at work, is said to have ‘indulged the defendant with nothing but empathy, kindness and endless patience’. The jury also heard around 3,500 WhatsApp messages were recovered between the pair, with the texts ‘quickly changing from appearing largely innocent to overwhelmingly sexual’.
Mr Cammegh said Miss Newborough was initially as ‘enthusiastic in sharing her sexual desires as the defendant is his’ – but there came a point ‘where the tone of the defendant’s messaging becomes distorted and unpleasant’.
He added: ‘Sexual fetishes emerge. He demands Megan address him as “Lord Commander” in fantasised scenarios. It may be flippant, but you might think it’s a sign of what truly lies beneath.’
The court heard McCullum had not been in an ‘emotional or sexual’ relationship for
‘Empathy, kindness and patience’ ‘A sign of what lies beneath’
around eight years. On August 6 last year Miss Newborough was invited to McCullum’s home in Coalville, Leicestershire. She arrived after 8pm. Mr Cammegh said: ‘At some point within the next 30 to 40 minutes he attacked her with great violence.’
During police interviews, McCullum claimed he killed her after becoming ‘agitated’ when she ‘attempted to touch him intimately’. Mr Cammegh said: ‘He told police that when he told her to get off she slapped him, at which he lost control of himself and started to strangle her.
‘He told police his loss of control was triggered by memories of when he was sexually abused by children older than him when he was young.’
The trial continues.