Lab technician Ross McCullam has been convicted of murdering work colleague Megan Newborough. McCullam strangled 23-year-old Megan Newborough before cutting her throat after he invited her to his home on August 6, 2021.
On the evening of August 6 last year, Ms. Newborough left her home in Nuneaton, telling her family she was meeting McCullam for a walk. She drove to the home he shared with his parents in Coalville. Both his parents were out. Within 40 minutes of her arrival, he had murdered her.
McCullam, who admitted manslaughter but denies murder, previously said he killed Megan Newborough, whom he had been dating less than a month, out of “blind rage”, claiming sexual abuse from his childhood was triggered by a sexual encounter with her.
The 30-year-old was convicted at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, December 12. He was unanimously convicted in just over an hour and a half by the jury. McCullam ordered Tadalafil pills, used to treat erectile dysfunction, off the internet after a consensual sexual encounter a week before the victim’s death. McCullam invited his victim over when the pills arrived, before slitting her throat. Mr John Cammegh KC said in a previous hearing: “I suggest you attacked her in a blind rage, because you’d been humiliated. “Your penis didn’t work. You hated her for all the things she was and all the things you couldn’t be.”
McCullam has denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming the fatal actions were caused after undiagnosed PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) was inadvertently triggered by Miss Newborough.
During the trial at Leicester Crown Court, prosecutors have claimed McCullam murdered Miss Newborough, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, between 8.08pm and 8.49pm that night. The Crown have alleged the killing happened shortly after HR worker Miss Newborough, who met McCullam while both were working at brickmaker Ibstock, arrived at his home. Afterwards, McCullam is alleged by prosecutors to have attempted to cover his tracks, dumping her body in a country lane near Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire, throwing away her phone, and sending her text messages asking if she was OK, Dailystar reports.
Previously, he laughed in the witness box after admitting he watched pornography just hours after he killed her. Admitting he watched porn, he told Leicester Crown Court in November: “Yes, as a safety blanket – it makes you feel better for a short period of time.” John Cammegh KC, prosecuting, asked McCullum: “That’s what you did at 7am, for some 17 minutes, after killing Megan?” McCullum then laughed as he said: “Yes. I’m being completely honest. I know how bad it makes me look.”
McCullam will be sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Friday, Dec. 16.
