A man who killed a young woman he met at work was a “cunning and resourceful murderer”, his trial has been told.

The court heard Ross McCullum, 30, and Megan Newborough, 23, had been in a relationship for about a month when he strangled her to death.

He then cut her throat 14 times, later telling police he did so “to make sure Megan was dead”.

The jury at Leicester Crown Court was told McCullum admits killing Ms Newborough, but denies it was murder.

He says a “loss of control” or abnormality of mind means he’s only guilty of manslaughter.

The court heard he had told police in an interview that he became agitated when Ms Newborough attempted to touch him intimately.

He claimed that when he told her to get off she slapped him, at which he lost control of himself and started to strangle her.

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They had met just over a month earlier at work.

At the time, Ms Newborough was living in Nuneaton at her parents’ home and McCullum was living in Coalville in Leicestershire with his parents.

On the evening of Friday 6 August last year, Ms Newborough told her parents she was going for a walk with McCullum and drove to his home. His parents were both out.

Her last message checking which house it was, was sent to him at 8.08pm.

After that “no one except Ross McCullum would see her alive again”, the court was told.

Outlining the prosecution case, John Cammegh KC told the jury that McCullum strangled Ms Newborough between 8.15pm and 8.50pm and then “embarked immediately upon a series of deliberate actions carefully calculated and executed to cover up Megan’s murder and his role in it”.

Jurors were told that in a “calculated move designed to throw investigators off the scent”, at 8.53pm he sent a text message to her phone telling her she was amazing.

He put her body in the passenger seat of her own car and drove away, disposing of her phone in undergrowth before dumping her body over a stone wall into an overgrown area of countryside close to the village of Woodhouse Eaves.

He then drove to Loughborough where he was caught on CCTV disposing of clothing.

He took a taxi home and arrived back soon before his parents returned. The jury heard both his parents will appear as prosecution witnesses.

At around 11.30pm he called Ms Newborough’s phone and left a voice message telling her he loved her.

The jury heard he had suffered with depression and had stopped taking medication for ADHD.

The trial continues.

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