Virginia McCullough told police ‘I know I don’t seem 100% evil’ while her parent’s bodies were upstairs

An “clever manipulator” murdered her mother and father “in chilly blood” then hid them in makeshift tombs and lived alongside their our bodies for 4 years.

Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, aged 70, with prescription remedy and fatally stabbed her 71-year-old mom Lois McCullough shortly afterwards.

She then lied about their whereabouts and spent their cash.

Choose Mr Justice Johnson sentenced McCullough, of Chelmsford, Essex, to life imprisonment with a minimal time period of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court docket on Friday, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier listening to in the identical courtroom.

Richard Butcher, brother of Lois McCullough, stated in a sufferer impression assertion that his niece – the defendant – was “very harmful” and what had occurred “undermined my religion in humanity”.

McCullough poisoned her father, who had labored as a college lecturer at Anglia Ruskin College, with prescription remedy that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks – then, a day later, she beat her mom with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.

The sentencing listening to was advised she hid their our bodies in makeshift tombs on the household house in Pump Hill, then advised persistent lies to cowl her tracks.

She ran up massive money owed on bank cards in her mother and father’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions.

The courtroom heard she cancelled household preparations and often advised medical doctors and kinfolk her mother and father had been unwell, on vacation or away on prolonged journeys.

However issues for Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare had been raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered follow, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding crew referred these to police.

The GP had not seen the couple for a while and stated Mr McCullough had failed to gather remedy and attend scheduled appointments.

It was discovered McCullough had often cancelled appointments, utilizing a spread of excuses to clarify her father’s absence.

Police stated a lacking individuals investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her mother and father had been travelling and can be returning in October.

It turned a homicide investigation, and when officers compelled entry to the home on 15 September 2023, McCullough confessed her mother and father’ our bodies had been in the home and that she had killed them.

In body-worn video footage launched by police, a handcuffed McCullough advised officers: “I did know that this may type of come ultimately.

“It’s correct that I serve my punishment.”

She stated she had slipped one thing into her father’s drink then put his physique below a mattress on the bottom flooring, and put her mom’s physique in an upstairs wardrobe.

McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double homicide, advised an officer: “Cheer up, at the least you’ve caught the unhealthy man.”

She added: “I do know I don’t appear 100 per cent evil.”

On the police station, she advised officers the place a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “homicide weapon”, and a hammer which she stated “will nonetheless have blood on it”.

Essex Police stated paperwork discovered on the deal with “constructed an image of a girl who was attempting desperately to maintain her mother and father from discovering the depth of the monetary black gap she continued to dig, whereas giving them false assurances about her employment and future prospects”.

Passing sentence, the decide advised the defendant she was nearly £60,000 in debt earlier than the killings and that she “span and maintained” an “elaborate, intensive and enduring net of deceit” over months and years.

Mr Justice Johnson described her actions as a “gross violation of the belief that ought to exist between mother and father and their kids”.

He stated: “I’m certain a considerable motive for every of the murders was to cease your mother and father discovering you had been stealing from them and mendacity to them and to take cash that was supposed for them.”

McCullough, who has shoulder-length dyed blonde hair and wore a purple prime, nodded to the decide earlier than she was led from the safe dock to the cells.

Christine Agnew KC, mitigating for McCullough, advised the courtroom the defendant “says ‘I’m a happier individual in jail than I used to be exterior’”.

Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby, of Essex Police, stated: “Virginia McCullough murdered her mother and father in chilly blood.

“Her actions had been thought of, meticulous and carried out in such a approach as to hide what she had finished for so long as doable.

“These had been the actions of somebody who had taken time to plan and perform the homicide of her mother and father within the curiosity of self-preservation and private acquire, earlier than dwelling inside metres of the our bodies of her two victims for plenty of years.

“All through the course of our investigation, we’ve constructed an image of the huge ranges of deceit, betrayal and fraud she engaged in.

“It was on a stunning and monumental scale.

“McCullough lied about nearly each facet of her life, sustaining a charade to deceive everybody near her and clearly benefiting from her mother and father’ goodwill.

“She is an clever manipulator who selected to kill her mother and father callously, with no thought for them or those that proceed to undergo because of their loss.”

Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, stated: “McCullough callously and viciously killed each of her mother and father earlier than concealing their our bodies in makeshift tombs inside their house deal with.

“She spent the following 4 years manipulating and mendacity to members of the family, medical employees, monetary establishments, and the police, spending her mother and father’ cash and accruing massive money owed of their title.”

She added: “This was a really disturbing case, which has left behind it a path of devastation, and I can solely hope that the sentence handed as we speak will assist those that liked and cared for Lois and John start to heal.”