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 slashed her throat 14 times, later telling police he did it “to make sure Megan was dead”. 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 is only guilty of manslaughter. The court heard he had told police in an interview that he became agitated when Ms Newborough tried to touch him closely. He claimed that when he told her to get off he slapped him, causing him to lose control of himself and start strangling her. They had met a little 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 August 6 last year, Ms Newborough told her parents she was going for a walk with McCullum and drove to his house. His parents were both out. Her last message checking which house he was in was sent to him on 20.08. After that, “no one but Ross McCullum would see her alive again”, the court was told. Outlining the prosecution case, John Cammegh KC told jurors that McCullum strangled Ms Newborough between 8.15pm and 8.50pm and then “immediately began 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. She placed her body in the passenger seat of her own car and drove off, tossing her phone into some undergrowth before dumping her body over a stone wall in an overgrown area of ​​countryside near the village of Woodhouse Eaves. He then drove to Loughborough where he was caught on CCTV throwing clothes. He took a taxi home and returned just before his parents returned. The court heard that both his parents will appear as prosecution witnesses. At around 11.30pm he called Ms Newborough’s phone and left a voicemail telling her he loved her. The jury heard he suffered from depression and had stopped taking ADHD medication. The trial continues.