Woman who killed parents is jailed for 36 years

A woman who murdered her parents and lived with their bodies for four years has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years.

- Rachel Keenan

Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father, John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks, the prosecutor, Lisa Wilding KC, told Chelmsford crown court. She then murdered her mother, Lois McCullough, 71, the following day.

The barrister said McCullough "beat her mother with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose".

Both murders took place in June 2019 at the couple's home in Great Baddow, Essex, where the defendant continued to live with her parents' dead bodies for the next four years.

McCullough "built a makeshift tomb" of masonry blocks for her father, who had been a university lecturer, Wilding told the court.

"She concealed the body of her mother, wrapped in a sleeping bag, within a wardrobe in her mother's bedroom on the top floor of the property," the barrister said.