Virginia McCullough, 36, was arrested by police last year four years after murdering her parents John, 71, and Lois, 70, at their home in Pump Hill, Chelmsford and covering up her crime.
This is the moment a remorseless woman who killed her parents and hid their bodies in their own home for four years calmly tells police who turned up to arrest her: 'Cheer up: at least you've caught the bad guy.'
She appears to stifle a smile as she tells a stony-faced officer to 'cheer up' because he caught a killer. This is the moment Virginia McCullough admits to police she hid her parents' bodies in the house after murdering them McCullough leads police into the back of the house where she tells them in full where to find her parents' bodies - and signs the confession herself
Wearing a tight, long-sleeved purple top and heavy eye makeup, blonde McCullough looked noticeably thinner as she appeared in the dock at Chelmsford Crown Court this morning.Following the sentencing, Essex Police's Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby said:'Her actions were considered, meticulous and carried out in such a way as to conceal what she had done for as long as possible.
'She is an intelligent manipulator who chose to kill her parents callously, without a thought for them or those who continue to suffer as a result of their loss. 'This process, from the finding of John and Lois' remains, to the unravelling of McCullough's web of lies, has taken a huge toll on the wider family network.
The court heard she gave her father a fatal dose of sleeping tablets, leaving him to die alone. McCullough found him dead the next morning - before deciding her mother could not be allowed to find out. In all, she frittered away £149,697 from credit cards, bank accounts, pensions and benefits attached to her parents - including over £21,000 on gambling.
Her sustained 'economic abuse' amounted to domestic abuse, he said, adding that she had 'robbed' her parents of 'dignity in death' by concealing their murders. 'These murders were done in the expectation you would gain financially from your parents' deaths. They were murders done for gain. You think more of money than you do of humanity.'The fact you concealed your parents' bodies for so long and maintained the deceit that they were still alive robbed them of dignity in death.'
'Her actions were, on her own admission, the culmination of months of thought and planning which began in March 2019.' Police staged a raid on the house on September 15 last year after McCullough's parents' doctors raised the alarmThe court heard Mr McCullough - a university lecturer on the autistic spectrum - had a medical history of hypertension, type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol and glaucoma, all of which required regular medication and appointments with his doctor.
'We would also like to thank other specialist services for their invaluable contribution to this investigation, and to everyone who has supported our family over the last year. 'Their love for the seaside was so great, they were hoping to move to the coast in their retirement years. Mum and Dad always enjoyed the time they spent with us, family was their pride and joy.
Nevertheless, she pretended to her parents she was a salaried web designer, and pretended to go into the office. She also lied about having benign cysts requiring treatment, and falsely made out to her GP that she was pregnant and had miscarried. She then embarked on a never-ending chronicle of lies, telling friends and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
In October 2022, she called police pretending to be her mother, saying that she and her father had been staying at different family addresses, and made 185 calls to the GP surgery, including calls in which she pretended to be her mother. Dramatic video of the lunchtime raid starts as police smash in the back door of the house as McCullough was greeted by officers at the front - closing off all possible routes of escape.
Gesturing towards the rear of the property, she adds: 'Can we go in there for a second just so I can tell you something about what's in there? I need to tell you something about what's in there. McCullough appears completely calm as she is confronted by a cohort of police officers at her home 'McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
Advertisement 'I slipped a pile of those into his drink... there were about two or three drinks I brought downstairs. They were basically... he didn't drink all of them, he only drunk probably half of two. The bodies of both Mr and Mrs McCullough were severely decomposed and had to be identified from dental records.
'Cheer up,' she says, grinning callously as she hands the pen back. 'At least you've caught the bad guy.' 'There's a lot of transactions that have taken place over the last few years from money that pertains to my parents.' A psychiatrist who examined McCullough said her 'callousness, lack of empathy and deceptive behaviours' indicates she is a psychopath.He said: 'Virginia is very dangerous. She has spread many lies to cover her misdeeds. Her ability to kill her parents undermines my faith in humanity.
One said Virginia's 'immeasurable amount of lies is sickening' and blasted her 'lies, laziness and greed'.
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