Watching pornography and looking up serial killers on the internet, sadistic Ross McCullam clearly felt no remorse. The 30-year-old lab technician had just dumped his girlfriend’s body under some bracken down a country lane, having strangled and attempted to decapitate her at his parents’ Leicestershire home.
Tomorrow night, Elaine and Anthony Newborough will once again be made to relive the horror of their daughter, 23-year-old Megan Newborough’s murder, when her story becomes the focus of an episode of Channel 4 series 999 What Happened Next. But the couple – who are staunch supporters of The Mirror’s Justice For Our Daughters campaign, which has successfully advocated for tougher sentences and system reforms to protect women from domestic violence killers – are willing participants.
For, while McCullam was convicted of murder at Leicester Crown Court in December 2022 and jailed for a minimum of 23 years, had Megan been murdered outside the home, the minimum tariff would have been 25 years. And the couple are campaigning for disparity in sentences to change.
Anthony, 58, senior account manager for a chemical business, says: “If a woman – because it’s mostly women – dies by the hands of her partner at home, their killer gets a more lenient sentence. It’s grossly unfair.” In the UK, murder by strangulation currently has a minimum sentence of 15 years, as does murder committed with a knife in a home setting – compared to 25 years if committed elsewhere
A breakthrough came this July, when David Lammy, then Secretary of State for Justice, announced in Parliament his decision to increase the minimum sentence for intimate partner or ex-partner murders to 25 years in England and Wales. But, with Lammy now replaced by Alex Norris, no change has yet been made and Anthony and Elaine – who met the new Secretary of State last week who promised to follow this up – are calling for action, not words.
The couple, who launched the Megan Newborough Foundation to fight to stop violence against women – as well as supporting The Dogs Trust, as she left behind her beloved pet dog Frank – also joined campaign group Killed Women to challenge sentencing disparities.
Elaine, 55, who works in an estate agency, says: ”Time is of the essence. Since Killed Women was formed [in November 2022], over 800 women have lost their lives in their homes at the hands of their partners. How many more killers will be given lenient sentences before women’s lives are seen to matter? Sometimes bodies aren’t even found. Their starting point [for a prison sentence] is 15 years. It’s unacceptable.”
The Killed Women group includes Carole Gould, whose daughter Ellie was killed by her ex boyfriend in 2019; Julie Devey, whose daughter Poppy was killed by her ex boyfriend in 2018 and Gail Smith, whose daughter Elinor O’Brien was killed by her abusive partner in 2022.
Megan, who had an older sister Claire, now 31, and a younger brother John, 26, was working in HR when she met her killer. In an impact statement at McCullam’s trial, Claire addressed the monster saying: “I hope she haunts you.”
Living with her family in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Megan had been seeing McCullam for a few weeks when he invited her to his parents’ home in Coalville, Leicestershire, that fateful night in August 2021 and strangled her, slicing her throat seven times with a carving knife, and partially decapitating her, before using her car to dump her body in undergrowth.
He then went home and texted her to say she was “amazing” and asking if she’d got home safely, to cover his tracks – having dumped his bloody clothes in a bin and thrown away her phone.
In 999 What Happened Next, police are seen rushing to locate Megan, following Anthony’s 999 call the day after she went out, concerned about her whereabouts. Detectives discovered that McCullam had killed her within 40 minutes of her arrival at his parents’ home.
The brute then returned home and left a fake concerned voicemail on her phone, professing his love for her and hoping she’d got home safely.
Describing Megan in an earlier interview in The Mirror in February 2024, backing Justice For Our Daughters, as “somebody everyone could relate to and talk to,” Elaine continues: “Women are dying every day. Every year, on average, over 100 women are losing their lives. How is that acceptable?”
After speaking to the Law Commission about sentencing disparities, she says they are looking at ways to make changes, but have been warned this could take a decade. Impatient for reform, Elaine has a message for lawmakers, saying: “Get it sorted. Do it sooner rather than later. We understand they have to take advice, but stop dragging your feet and do it.
“Losing your child is a living hell. And having a sentence which feels low makes it worse. No sentence would bring back our daughter – but 23 years doesn’t seem like justice.”
Anthony says of Megan’s killer: “He’ll be out in his 50s, potentially with another 30 years of life ahead of him. Yet he took Megan’s whole life away from her. It just does not seem fair.”
The week after she was killed, Megan was due to sign for a house of her own. She had her whole life ahead of her. Now her devastated parents want to make a difference in her memory.
Anthony says: “The change [to the sentencing] has been announced. But saying it and actually doing it are two very different things. We need action. And we won’t stop until it happens, for Megan’s legacy and for families of other victims like Megan.
“The world is missing a star. Megan was a bright spark. She was a force of nature. She was the glue that stuck the family together. We miss her every single day.”
Elaine continues: “She had a wicked sense of humour. Nothing will bring Megan back, but we’re determined some good must come from losing her. We want to save other women and their families from going through the same thing. And I’m sure she would be so proud of us.”
Prosecution barrister John Cammegh agrees that the sentencing disparity must end. He says: “I wanted in excess of 25 [years]. He used a knife, he partially decapitated her. But because she was murdered within his property, it does not equate to taking a knife to the scene – that is something I struggle with.”
And former safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, who has supported Elaine and lobby group Killed Women from its inception, adds: “Megan would be incredibly proud of her family and it has been an honour to work with them for many years.
“The fundamental principle that domestic murder has to be considered equal to all other murders has ended a discrepancy that meant women’s lives mattered less. Megan mattered.”
Meanwhile, Lord Chancellor Alex Norris, tells The Mirror: “I pay tribute to Elaine and Anthony Newborough, as well as Carole Gould and Julie Devey of Killed Women, who fought so bravely for this vital change[in sentencing] in the face of devastating loss.
“It’s a testament to their daughters’ legacies and their brave work, alongside the Mirror’s Justice for our Daughters campaign, will make sure future women and girls get the justice they deserve. I’m committed to closing this overdue gap in the law which will help ensure these heinous crimes are given a sentence which better reflects the catastrophic harm they cause.”
*999 What Happened Next, Mondays at 9pm on Channel 4
