A lady who murdered her dad and mom and lived with their our bodies for 4 years has been jailed for all times with a minimal time period of 36 years.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father, John McCullough, 70, with prescription remedy that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks, the prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC advised Chelmsford crown courtroom. She then murdered her mom, Lois McCullough, 71, the next day.
The barrister mentioned McCullough “beat her mom with a hammer and stabbed her a number of occasions within the chest with a kitchen knife purchased for the aim”.
Each murders passed off in June 2019 on the couple’s house in Nice Baddow, Essex, the place the defendant continued to stay along with her dad and mom’ lifeless our bodies for the following 4 years.
McCullough “constructed a makeshift tomb” for her father, who had labored as a college lecturer at Anglia Ruskin College, Wilding advised Chelmsford crown courtroom.
The “rectangular tomb” was present in a room that had been Mr McCullough’s bed room and research, and was “composed with masonry blocks stacked collectively”. It was “coated with a number of blankets, and a lot of photos and work excessive”, Wilding mentioned.
“She hid the physique of her mom, wrapped in a sleeping bag, inside a wardrobe in her mom’s bed room on the highest flooring of the property,” the barrister mentioned.
The murders had been uncovered after her dad and mom’ GPs raised considerations over missed appointments and police pressured entry to the house on 15 September 2023. For years McCullough advised lies about their whereabouts, ceaselessly telling medical doctors and relations her dad and mom had been unwell, on vacation or away on prolonged journeys.
Bodycam footage of the arrest confirmed police forcing entry to the property earlier than confronting McCullough in a hallway, the place she confessed to her crimes.
In reference to the arrest, she advised officers: “I did know that this may sort of come ultimately. It’s correct that I serve my punishment.”
She added: “Cheer up, no less than you caught the dangerous man.”
McCullough gave an in depth account, to officers in custody after her arrest, of how she had killed her dad and mom.
When telling officers the place the homicide weapon was, she mentioned the knife used to stab her mom was beneath the steps and “will nonetheless have blood on it, it’s rusted, however it’ll nonetheless have blood traces on it”.
She additionally advised police she needed to “construct up gumption” to kill her mom as “I knew I needed to get it carried out”.
Det Supt Rob Kirby, of Essex police, mentioned: “Virginia McCullough murdered her dad and mom in chilly blood,” including she was an “clever manipulator” who lied about “nearly each facet of her life”.
Wilding mentioned the defendant “had been interested by killing her dad and mom since March 2019 and had been planning for it” and that she had not been employed for a few years.
Statements had been learn on behalf of McCullough’s siblings, who’ve been granted anonymity by the choose.
One mentioned that they had been left “devastated and bereft” on the deaths of their dad and mom.
“To me this case is sort of actually a dwelling nightmare from which I’ll by no means get up,” they wrote. “The haunting ideas of [whether] my dad and mom suffered, in the event that they had been taunted.”
One other mentioned they felt “sick to my core” day-after-day.
“We now have been cruelly robbed of extra loving reminiscences and bonds with our mum and pop for years to return,” they added.
“How dare Virginia rob us of that life? “So many lies have been advised to cowl the horrific fact that she had murdered our loving mum and pop.”
The prosecutor mentioned the defendant “engaged in on-line playing” and spent £21,193 in transactions associated to playing between 1 June 2018 and 14 September 2023.
Wilding mentioned McCullough “made preparations to make sure that she continued to take pleasure in the good thing about the pensions” that continued to be paid in her dad and mom’ names after their deaths. The prosecutor mentioned McCullough “benefited from” £59,664.01 from the state pension and £76,334.58 from McCullough’s trainer’s pension between 18 June 2019 and 15 September 2023.
Wilding mentioned cash appeared to have been “frittered away and the investigation has not revealed any expenditure on costly, luxurious or extravagant objects”.
Richard Butcher, Lois McCullough’s brother, mentioned in a sufferer affect assertion that his niece was “very harmful” and that the main points of what had occurred had “undermined my religion in humanity”.
The choose, Mr Justice Johnson, mentioned McCullough’s actions had been a “gross violation of the belief that ought to exist between dad and mom and their youngsters”.
He mentioned he was certain the offences concerned a “substantial diploma of each pre-meditation and planning” as McCullough had accrued “a considerable amount of pharmaceuticals” and purchased a knife in Could 2019 in addition to “implements to crush and separate tablets”.
“These had been thought-about acts of aggression following months of thought and planning,” the choose mentioned.
Sentencing McCullough, he mentioned: “I’m certain a considerable motive for every of the murders was to cease your dad and mom discovering you had been stealing from them and mendacity to them and to take cash that was meant for them.”
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