In June 2019, Virginia McCullough murdered her father, John McCullough, and her mother, Lois McCullough. She pleaded guilty to each of those offences.
Virginia is 36 years old and the youngest of five daughters. In June 2019, she was living with her parents. All of her sisters had long since moved out of the family home. Her mother was 71. She suffered from anxiety and agoraphobia and had traits of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Virginia’s father was
70. He suffered with ill-health. He had hypertension, type-II diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia and glaucoma.
Virgina was jobless and did not have any regular income. She received payments from her father, and they relied on her to deal with some of their financial arrangements. Virginia stole from her parents and secured loans in their names without their knowledge to increase the amounts she could take from them. Virginia spent money gambling online and shopping. She lied about how the losses that
they sustained were incurred. Virginia said that they had been subject to fraud by others, or that there had been banking failures or that they had been hacked.
Virginia invented police and corporate investigations with promises of repayment, but which were always subject to delays. She lied to her parents about having employment when she did not. Virginia lied that she had certain medical conditions which she did not have.
In March 2019, Virginia started to contemplate killing both of her parents. Virginia said that was because she felt trapped and wanted to be free from them. The reality “is that you were trapped only by” her dishonest behaviour. Virginia must have appreciated that it was only a matter of time before her thefts and dishonesty would be discovered. By 17 June 2019, she had almost £60,000 in debt. That evening, she placed a cocktail of prescription drugs in their drinks. The following morning, she found her father dead in his bed.
Virginia’s mother was also in bed. Virginia had not put so many drugs in her drink, and her mother had not drunk all of the drink. She was still alive. Virginia had a backup plan for that scenario. Virginia put that plan into effect by hitting her mother over the head with a hammer. Her last conscious moment was the realisation that Virginia, her daughter, had launched a murderous attack on her. The mother asked Virginia what she was doing. The mother suffered defensive injuries as she fought for her life. Virginia stabbed her mother with a knife eight times, including seven stabs to her chest, resulting in her death.
That morning, Virginia went to the GP for help with a cut to her hand. Virginia had sustained that cut whilst stabbing her mother, but Virginia said it was the result of an accident when cutting vegetables. Then Virginia went to Chelmsford town centre to buy items to use to conceal her deceased parents’ bodies.
Virginia placed each of her parents in a sleeping bag she purchased on 18 June. Then, Virginia placed her mother in a wardrobe you sealed with tape. Later, Virginia partially obstructed the wardrobe with breezeblocks. She placed her father in a makeshift mausoleum constructed from breezeblocks.
The following day, 19 June, Virginia pretended to be her mother to obtain a new credit card and PIN. She then used that card to buy clothes and jewellery for yourself.
For four years and three months after Virginia had murdered your parents, she pretended that they were still alive. That started right from the day of their deaths. That afternoon, Virginia sent a text message from her mother’s phone to one of her sisters.
The message was “your dad and I are at the seaside in Walton this week. Mum x”. Then, that night, another message, “Good night. Mum. x”. Virginia continued to send such messages over the following months and years. She even spoke to one sister, pretending to be her mother. Virginia used many different SIM cards to contact her siblings and others, pretending to be their parents. She sent pre-printed birthday cards using an online service. Virginia took her parents’ pension payments amounting to almost £136,000. She telephoned her father’s pension company, pretending to be him.
Virginia also spent money on their credit cards, opened new ones in their names, and spent money on those. She used their bank accounts and took their winter fuel payments. The total amount she took was almost £150,000. Virginia made calls to the police, pretending to be her mother, complaining about trivial matters. Virginia made calls to her parents’ GP pretending to be her mother.
One of her sisters described Virginia as having always been a compulsive liar. “That description is clearly justified, but it hardly captures the elaborate, extensive and enduring web of deceit that you spun and maintained over months and years,” said the judge.
The judge added, “As to mitigating factors, you accuse your parents of conduct which might be said to involve some emotional and other neglect when you were young. Your sisters do not support everything you say. But in any event, you were in your 30s when you killed them. Any difficulties in childhood do not begin to explain or excuse what you did. It does not amount to significant mitigation. Nor does the fact that the domestic arrangements at home may not have been entirely straightforward.
“I have the benefit of extensive medical evidence, including reports from experts instructed by both prosecution and defence. At the time of the offences, you had developed symptoms of personality disorder and autistic spectrum condition. You may also have had mild depression. Since the offending, you have developed some psychosis. These factors amount to personal mitigation and they are relevant to the impact that custody will have on you. You also have some physical difficulties which I likewise take into account. The autistic spectrum condition may also explain the matter of fact way in which you
admitted to the murders when you were arrested. It is suggested in one of the reports that you might have thought that you had a binary choice between living with your parents and killing them, and that this is likely to have been a consequence of autism.
“However, the evidence compellingly shows a financial motivation for killing your parents, rather than feelings of being trapped in the way that you describe. None of the experts suggest that your autism is
responsible for your general dishonesty or for stealing from your parents, or from reaching the position where your dishonesty was likely to be uncovered. And even if your autistic condition had a narrowing effect on the choices that you thought were available to you, you nevertheless made a free deliberate and
conscious decision to murder your parents. None of the experts suggest that decision was motivated or caused by your autistic condition.”
The judge stressed that in the light of “my assessment of the evidence, and in particular the reason for
the offending, there is no scope for a finding that your mental health substantially reduces your culpability.” On the contrary, the judge noted that there was no impairment of “your ability to understand the nature of your conduct, to form a rational judgment and to exercise self-control,” as these were considered acts of aggression following months of thought and planning.
“Virginia McCullough, I sentence you to imprisonment for life. I impose a minimum term of 36 years less the time you have spent on remand. That means that you will remain in custody at least until you have served the minimum term. After that it will be for the Parole Board to decide whether you
are safe to be released. If you are released, you will remain on licence and will
be liable to be recalled to prison, for the rest of your life,” the judge ruled.
