Police officers are investigating whether any crimes have been committed after a person entered a property at the heart of a disturbing murder in Chelmsford. Photos and videos from inside a property on Pump Hill have recently circulated on social media.
The property has been blocked off to visitors after Virginia McCullough was arrested in September 2023 on suspicion of killing her parents John, 70, and Lois, 71, at the family home. She was sentenced to at least 36 years behind bars in October 2024 after officers unravelled the web of lies she had spread for years.
Essex Police carried out a forensic deep clean of the property since graphic images were taken from inside the property. This happened before they became aware of the images being shared on social media.
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The disturbing photos, which EssexLive has chosen not to share, display some of the methods that McCullough used to keep her parents’ deaths secret for four years. They also included a picture believed to have been taken from inside the home’s kitchen where food items, crockery and cutlery have been left untouched on surfaces.
An Essex Police spokesman said: “We are aware of footage, taken from within a private property, circulating on social media. Whilst our enquiries into this footage and how it was obtained are ongoing, we ask people not to share it any further out of respect for the grieving family at the heart of this matter.”
Virgina McCullough, of Great Baddow, admitted murdering her parents
(Image: Essex Police)
Officers are assessing whether any criminal offence may have been committed by entering a private property without authorised access and participating in unauthorised filming. EssexLive understands the family of the McCulloughs to be utterly devastated by the intrusion.
The individual’s publication of personal/private information and imagery, taken on private property, could be unlawful but is certainly unethical. Virginia McCullough was jailed after admitting to using an alcoholic cocktail of medication to poison her dad before brutally beating her mum to death in 2019 and keeping their bodies at a property she continued to live in until her arrest four years later.