Lab worker Ross McCullam who murdered colleague Megan Newborough branded ‘a monster’ by her sister

A lab worker who strangled and slashed the throat of a colleague he had been dating for less than a month has been branded a “monster” by the victim’s sister, who told him: “I hope she haunts you”.

Claire Newborough told Ross McCullam as he sat weeping in the dock that he was “an unpredictable menace” who had “tricked, murdered and brutalised” her younger sibling.

The porn-obsessed 30-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years in front of Megan Newborough’s family at Leicester Crown Court on Friday.

McCullam had admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murder following a six-week trial, during which he was branded a “sadistic killer”.

Police described him as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and believed he would have “gone on to kill again”.

McCullam and Ms Newborough, 23, had been seeing each other for about a month when he murdered her last year.

He throttled her then cut her throat with a carving knife, later telling police he did so “to make sure Megan was dead”.

He then dumped Ms Newborough’s body in undergrowth next to a country lane in Leicestershire before trying to cover his tracks by changing his clothes and leaving a voicemail on her phone telling her that he loved her.

Sentencing McCullam for a “truly dreadful” crime, Judge Philip Head said of “stellar” Ms Newborough: “It was her dreadful misfortune to become involved in a relationship with you.”

The victim’s older sister, Claire Newborough, said in her impact statement read to the court: “She was cruelly dumped, topless, in a cold, dark field, where the defendant thought she would never be found.

“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 a few yards away, she said: “The definition of a monster is cruel, frightening and evil – and it is to my relief the defendant has been recognised as a monster.

“You are an unpredictable menace, a danger to women, obsessed with serial killers.”

Ms Newborough added: “She always thought she could fix people, but fixing evil people is not possible.

“You tricked her, murdered her, brutalised her and left her in such an undignified way.

“I hope she haunts you.”

Her father, Anthony Newborough, wept 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.

“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.”

McCullam, who met Ms Newborough at the brickmaking firm Ibstock where they both worked, claimed he had killed her in a “blind rage” as a result of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by unreported childhood sexual abuse.

But the prosecution dismissed his as a “pack of lies” and said McCullam murdered Ms Newborough because of his anger at being sexually impotent immediately prior to the attack.

Prosecutors pointed to his having ordered tadalafil pills off the internet, used to treat erectile dysfunction.

He searched the internet for pornography and looked up details of serial killers including Levi Bellfield, Ian Huntley and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, in the hours after he disposed of Ms Newborough’s body.

Knowing she was dead, he called Ms Newborough’s phone and left a voice message saying: “I had a fun time earlier.”

On remand, McCullam had also bragged to a cellmate about using the knife, and suggested he would use his mental health as a “tool” at trial.

In another incident, he was overheard on a prison landing by a guard laughing as he told other inmates “If you carry on like this, you’ll end up like Megan”.

Another prison warder also heard him joking openly with other inmates about the killing, telling them “if I had gone a bit further I’d have taken her head off”.