Lab worker who strangled colleague and slit her throat in ‘blind rage’ jailed for 23 years
16 December 2022, 13:02
A murderer who throttled and cut the throat of a trusting female work colleague he had been dating for less than a month has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Ross McCullam, who had admitted manslaughter before his trial but denied murder, was convicted in little more than 90 minutes by a jury at Leicester Crown Court on Monday.
He was jailed at the same court on Friday in front of more than 20 members of 23-year-old HR worker Megan Newborough's family, by Judge Philip Head who described the killing as a "truly dreadful" crime.
He said of "stellar" Miss Newborough: "It was her dreadful misfortune to become involved in a relationship with you."
McCullam, of Windsor Close, Coalville, Leicestershire, had claimed he acted only in a "blind rage" after a loss of control which Miss Newborough had inadvertently triggered during oral sex, after an incident at his parents' home on August 6, 2021.
The porn-obsessed 30-year-old lab technician, who met Miss Newborough, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, at brickmaker Ibstock where both worked, sought to blame his attack on undiagnosed PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) caused by unreported childhood sexual abuse.
But he was undone by his own web of lies, including mounting an elaborate cover-up in which he dumped her body in undergrowth and changed his blood-stained clothes, and also texted her to say "you were amazing" and asking if she had got home safe.
During her victim impact statement Miss Newborough's older sister Claire Newborough, addressing a weeping McCullam in the dock, told him: "I hope she haunts you."
Jailing 30-year-old McCullam, of Windsor Close, Coalville, Leicestershire, Judge Philip Head 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."
Earlier the judge described 23-year-old Miss Newborough, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, as a "stellar" personality, who was "supportive, patient and caring" of friends, colleagues and family.
Addressing McCullam, he told the lab worker: "It was her dreadful misfortune to become involved in a relationship with you."
Megan Newborough's father, Anthony Newborough, wept in a court victim impact statement 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," he said.
"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."
Claire Newborough, Miss Newborough's older sister, said McCullam had made a choice, by running murder to trial, that had put the family through "seven weeks of hell", despite him having launched an "horrific and barbaric" attack on her sibling.
Although the judge did not sentence McCullam on the grounds he had tried to cut off Miss Newborough's head, her family were sure it is what her co-worker had intended, with seven separate injuries to her neck.
Miss Newborough's sibling added: "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."
In her victim impact statement read to court, Miss Newborough's older sibling added that having been subjected to a "terrifying" and unprovoked attack, McCullam heaped fresh "suffering" on his victim.
"She was cruelly dumped, topless, in a cold, dark field, where the defendant thought she would never be found," she said.
"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 Claire Newborough described him as the very "definition" of a "monster".
"The definition of a monster is cruel, frightening and evil - and it is to my relief the defendant has been recognised as a monster," she said.
"You are an unpredictable menace, a danger to women, obsessed with serial killers," adding he also seemed obsessed with his own notoriety.
