00:00:06
- NARRATOR: 2nd November, 1989,
Amsterdam, Netherlands.
00:00:10
32-year-old Melissa Halstead
phones her mother in Ohio.
00:00:15
- MELISSA: I just called
to wish you a happy birthday,
00:00:17
have a good time
and take care of yourself.
00:00:19
Goodbye, I love you.
00:00:21
- NARRATOR: It was her last
call home.
00:00:24
Six months later,
her headless torso was found
00:00:27
dumped in a bag in the
Westersingel Canal, Rotterdam.
00:00:31
Her hands were also missing.
00:00:34
- STEVE: The fact that he can
kill women is one thing.
00:00:37
But then to dismember the bodies
and remove body parts
00:00:40
that even to this day have
still not been recovered
00:00:43
is just a horrendous
and shocking thing to do.
00:00:46
- NARRATOR: Melissa's murderer
was her British boyfriend,
00:00:48
33-year-old John Sweeney,
00:00:51
otherwise known as
the Scalp Hunter.
00:00:53
After brutally dismembering her,
he created macabre pictures
00:00:57
about the killing.
00:00:59
- LOUIS: You look
at his artwork
00:01:00
and it speaks for itself
00:01:02
as to the depth of his
very grotesque fantasies,
00:01:07
and that tells you what's
going on inside of him.
00:01:10
- NARRATOR: In the ten years
that followed, back in London,
00:01:13
he brutally dismembered
a second woman,
00:01:16
and subjected another to
a violent campaign of assault.
00:01:19
- DELIA: I saw my small
finger fly through the air,
00:01:22
and then I thought, "That's it,
I've had enough, I want to die.
00:01:26
I don't want to live
in this pain."
00:01:28
- NARRATOR: Driven by jealousy,
he maimed and even held
00:01:31
his so-called lovers prisoner
in their own homes.
00:01:34
He hacked two women to death
in a moment of rage.
00:01:38
That makes John Sweeney one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:01:42
- ♪
00:01:57
♪♪
00:02:03
- NARRATOR: When 33-year-old
Melissa Halstead's body
00:02:06
was found in Rotterdam's
Westersingel Canal
00:02:09
on May the 3rd, 1990,
00:02:12
police at the time were
mystified as to the identity
00:02:15
of this unknown woman.
00:02:17
- No one knew who she was.
00:02:20
Obviously, it was a female,
but there's no head,
00:02:23
there's no hands,
so there's no dental records
00:02:26
to be found, there are no
fingerprint records to be found.
00:02:30
Remember, this is a long time
before DNA really became
00:02:35
significant in
the identification of a body.
00:02:39
- NARRATOR: Former detective
inspector Steve Smith
00:02:42
would later investigate
the murder
00:02:44
for London's
Metropolitan Police.
00:02:48
- Identification was impossible.
00:02:51
What they could say was
that it was the body
00:02:52
of a...a young, white female.
00:02:55
In around late 20's, early 30's.
00:02:58
She was trussed up with rope,
00:03:00
but there was really
nothing else to go on.
00:03:02
- NARRATOR: Eighteen years later
the police finally identify
00:03:06
the body as Melissa's by DNA
during a cold case review.
00:03:11
It was then they linked it
to a strikingly similar killing
00:03:14
of 31-year-old Paula Fields
in December 2000.
00:03:18
She'd also been found
savagely dismembered
00:03:21
and dumped in bags in
Regents Canal, London, England.
00:03:26
- ELIZABETH:
When you dismember somebody,
00:03:28
you are essentially obliterating
them,
00:03:30
you are cutting them
into pieces,
00:03:32
and that expresses an anger
towards the victim,
00:03:35
that they are something
that should be destroyed,
00:03:38
that they're not worthy.
00:03:40
- NARRATOR: The chilling common
thread found between them?
00:03:43
They both had a relationship
with London-based John Sweeney.
00:03:47
For the first time,
British and Dutch polices forces
00:03:51
launched a joint European
murder inquiry
00:03:54
into the suspected killer.
00:03:56
- STEVE: This was a violent,
controlling individual
00:03:59
who in every relationship
with women throughout his life,
00:04:03
he had behaved in the same
reprehensible way,
00:04:06
just exploding in fits of rage
and violence.
00:04:09
Culminating in murder.
00:04:13
- NARRATOR: Those who knew
the happy-go-lucky
00:04:15
bohemian carpenter were
horrified to discover a man
00:04:19
with a long history of domestic
violence against women.
00:04:23
- Sweeney's attacks on women
00:04:25
that he was
in relationships with
00:04:27
put him in the category
of domestic abuser,
00:04:29
and domestic abuse is not
taken as seriously
00:04:32
as it should be.
00:04:34
This really,
really frustrates me
00:04:35
about this kind of case,
00:04:37
because there's a failure to see
how dangerous
00:04:39
a serial domestic abuser is.
00:04:43
- NARRATOR:
This killer's story begins
00:04:44
on the 13th of October, 1956.
00:04:48
John Patrick Sweeney was born
in Kirkdale, Liverpool,
00:04:52
in the northwest of England.
00:04:54
He had a brother and a sister.
00:04:56
After spending his early years
in Merseyside,
00:04:59
the family moved 14 miles
further north,
00:05:02
to Skelmersdale, in Lancashire.
00:05:04
- STEVE: There was some evidence
that we discovered
00:05:06
that his father was violent,
and John Sweeney did receive
00:05:11
beatings in his youth,
and I think this would have
00:05:14
possibly made him resentful
of any sort of authority.
00:05:17
- ELIZABETH: He comes from
quite a working-class background
00:05:20
so there's this idea that
men should be tough,
00:05:22
they should be stoic,
they should be resilient,
00:05:25
so the kind of stuff he's
being exposed to
00:05:28
during his childhood is kind of
teaching him something
00:05:30
about women; who they are,
how they should behave,
00:05:33
and that they are
inferior to men.
00:05:37
- NARRATOR: Young Sweeney
had a creative mind.
00:05:41
He developed a passion
for drawing and painting.
00:05:44
At the age of 15,
he considered art school,
00:05:47
but instead trained
as a carpenter.
00:05:51
- ELIZABETH: He wanted to be
an artist,
00:05:53
but he ended up going
into carpentry and joinery,
00:05:56
because I think there was
that expectation
00:05:58
that the young men--young
working-class men--were not
00:06:01
going to pursue those kind
of artistic, creative endeavors,
00:06:04
so I think there's always
that frustration in him,
00:06:06
that he has to be a particular
type of man.
00:06:10
- NARRATOR: As a teenager,
the man's man Sweeney
00:06:13
showed a capacity for
extreme violence.
00:06:16
This resulted in a number
of run-ins with the authorities.
00:06:20
- STEVE: Sweeney had convictions
from his teenage years
00:06:23
because he was always showing
violent tendencies.
00:06:27
I certainly remember that
one of his earlier convictions
00:06:30
was involved in an affray
outside a fish-and-chip shop.
00:06:35
He got involved in an
altercation
00:06:36
with some other youths,
00:06:38
and I believe there was
certainly an axe
00:06:40
that was brandished.
00:06:41
I think it was by luck, really,
that no one got seriously hurt.
00:06:45
So he was on the radar
of the police
00:06:46
from a young age.
00:06:49
- NARRATOR: By 1974,
the wayward Sweeney
00:06:51
appeared to settle down,
00:06:53
marrying at the tender age
of just 18.
00:06:57
He and his young wife, Anne,
lived in Skelmersdale.
00:07:01
- GEOFFREY: They had two
children, a boy and a girl.
00:07:03
It's a very violent
relationship.
00:07:06
He beats her.
He hits her regularly.
00:07:09
- ELIZABETH: A lot of his
violence focuses around
00:07:11
the domestic setting,
he's violent towards
00:07:13
the women in his life,
and there are criminal incidents
00:07:16
that are connected to that.
00:07:18
- NARRATOR: Sweeney reportedly
threw bricks through the window
00:07:22
and abused the family's
pet turtles at home.
00:07:25
But it was his wife
who suffered the most.
00:07:28
- Sweeney had a proprietary
view of the different women
00:07:31
he was involved in
in his life.
00:07:33
In other words, he thought
he owned the women,
00:07:35
and as a result he was
extremely controlling,
00:07:38
he wanted to know everything
they were doing,
00:07:40
he wanted to control all
of their movements,
00:07:42
and if something is done
that's out of his control
00:07:46
or something that he doesn't
want, he explodes,
00:07:49
in a very violent way.
00:07:52
- NARRATOR: After just five
years of marriage,
00:07:54
Sweeney's wife decided
she'd had enough,
00:07:57
and divorced him in 1979.
00:08:00
But the ever-manipulative
Sweeney persuaded her
00:08:03
to make a fresh start
with him once again.
00:08:07
- STEVE:
Amazingly, they remarried.
00:08:09
It was about 1981,
but unfortunately,
00:08:12
after a very short period
of time,
00:08:13
the second marriage also
went sour, again,
00:08:17
entirely due to Sweeney's
00:08:18
unreasonable
and violent behavior.
00:08:21
- NARRATOR: The same old
sadistic Sweeney
00:08:23
had reappeared once again.
00:08:26
One evening, though,
the regular domestic violence
00:08:29
he inflicted on his wife
escalated to new heights.
00:08:34
- STEVE: One occasion,
she'd had a major operation,
00:08:38
and Sweeney got drunk one night,
00:08:40
and he was so violent towards
her when he attacked her,
00:08:43
that he assaulted her
and he had actually burst
00:08:45
her operation scar.
00:08:48
- NARRATOR: Enough was enough
for Sweeney's wife,
00:08:51
and once again,
she ended their relationship.
00:08:54
John Sweeney finally left
the family home.
00:08:57
However, one day, his ex-wife,
Anne, was with her neighbor,
00:09:01
when she suddenly heard noises
from her own house next door.
00:09:06
- STEVE: She chose to call
the police.
00:09:07
When an officer turned up
and helped search the house,
00:09:10
in her bedroom, Sweeney
jumped out of a wardrobe
00:09:13
with an axe and a knife,
00:09:15
stating that he just wanted
to surprise her,
00:09:17
so one can only imagine
what sort of surprise
00:09:20
that would have been if
the police hadn't been present.
00:09:23
- ELIZABETH: He intended
to do serious harm to his wife.
00:09:26
I think he actually
intended to kill her,
00:09:28
because she'd slipped out
of his control
00:09:31
and he wanted that back.
00:09:34
- NARRATOR: He was arrested
but later released
00:09:36
without charge,
on agreement that he'd stay away
00:09:39
from his wife.
00:09:40
She divorced him once again
00:09:42
and moved 150 miles south
with their two children
00:09:46
to Northampton.
00:09:48
Sweeney also decided
it was time for a change,
00:09:52
leaving his hometown
of Skelmersdale,
00:09:54
where he was under the watchful
eye of the police.
00:09:58
- STEVE: He went off
the radar for a while,
00:09:59
he went looking for work abroad
00:10:01
because there was more money,
more opportunity,
00:10:04
casual work was easy
to come by.
00:10:06
So he certainly traveled
to Germany,
00:10:09
and probably France
and the Netherlands,
00:10:11
but his actual movements are
really quite sketchy.
00:10:15
- NARRATOR: But before long,
26-year-old John Sweeney
00:10:18
would be back to his old ways.
00:10:21
- GEOFFREY: What I believe,
and absolutely believe,
00:10:24
is he was, in the end,
a predator looking for victims,
00:10:28
looking for a woman
who was vulnerable,
00:10:30
looking for someone whom
he could entice,
00:10:34
someone he could...draw
into the spider's web
00:10:38
of his control.
00:10:40
- NARRATOR: Soon, he'd ensnare
another victim on his travels,
00:10:43
another unsuspecting woman
he could control and abuse.
00:10:48
This time, though,
00:10:49
he'd return to his passion
for drawing,
00:10:51
and his gruesome artwork would
reveal more sinister plans.
00:10:57
1986. London, England.
00:11:02
30-year-old wife abuser
John Sweeney was divorced
00:11:06
and living more than 60 miles
away from his family.
00:11:10
Now, he's set his sights
on finding another woman
00:11:13
he could entice into his home.
00:11:17
Whilst working as a carpenter
on the set of a photoshoot,
00:11:21
he met Melissa Halstead,
an American photographer.
00:11:26
- ELIZABETH: She was a model,
she was a really stunning
00:11:28
young woman,
00:11:29
and she meets Sweeney,
00:11:31
and you'd think, "What on earth
did she see in this guy?"
00:11:34
But actually, when you look
at people like John Sweeney,
00:11:36
they are very quick
to suck you in
00:11:38
and make you feel very special,
00:11:40
and Melissa was quite vulnerable
00:11:42
'cause she's in a country
that she doesn't know,
00:11:44
she hasn't got that strong
support network
00:11:46
of friends and family
around her,
00:11:48
and she is, in essence,
the ideal victim for Sweeney,
00:11:52
because he's able
to isolate her.
00:11:56
- NARRATOR:
Shortly after they met,
00:11:58
Melissa agreed to set up home
with Sweeney in North London.
00:12:03
- ELIZABETH: The initial
relationship between
00:12:05
Melissa and Sweeney,
00:12:06
it would've been full
of charm and romance,
00:12:09
he would've swept her
off her feet,
00:12:11
because that's
how abusers operate.
00:12:13
They come in as this knight
in shining armor,
00:12:15
they make themselves
indispensable to you.
00:12:19
- NARRATOR: Soon, though,
the charm melted away,
00:12:22
and John Sweeney,
the domestic abuser,
00:12:25
revealed his true self.
00:12:27
- This relationship was quite
quick to turn nasty,
00:12:31
and the following year,
he was already assaulting her,
00:12:34
and I think by that point,
he chipped away so expertly
00:12:38
at her self-esteem
and at her confidence,
00:12:41
that she finds herself
in this impossible situation.
00:12:45
- NARRATOR: Melissa's family
in Ohio, in the United States,
00:12:48
were becoming concerned
about this new relationship
00:12:51
that she'd been drawn into.
00:12:53
Her sister paid a visit
to London
00:12:55
and didn't like
what she discovered.
00:12:58
- STEVE: She took an instant
dislike to Sweeney.
00:13:00
Some drugs were found
in Sweeney and Melissa's flat,
00:13:04
and this really added to her
view that Sweeney
00:13:07
was not a good individual at
all for her sister to be with.
00:13:12
In fact, there was one
conversation that Melissa had,
00:13:15
in which she confided in her
that if anything ever happened
00:13:17
to her, then it would be
Sweeney that had done it.
00:13:20
- NARRATOR: And sure enough,
within 12 months
00:13:22
of moving in with Melissa,
00:13:24
serial abuser Sweeney
came onto the police radar
00:13:28
once again.
00:13:29
In 1987, he was reprimanded
twice by the authorities
00:13:34
for violent assaults
on his girlfriend.
00:13:37
- One of the assaults involved
Sweeney throwing a chair at her.
00:13:41
Causing injury,
I think to her legs,
00:13:43
and then on another occasion,
00:13:45
he punched her,
causing severe bruising.
00:13:48
- NARRATOR: On both occasions,
Sweeney was slapped on the wrist
00:13:51
with a fine, he never received
a custodial sentence.
00:13:57
- ELIZABETH: Domestic abuse
doesn't have a particularly
00:13:58
high status as a crime,
00:14:01
nowhere near as high
as it should be,
00:14:03
so we will often find that men
convicted of domestic abuse,
00:14:07
the sentences they receive
are quite lenient,
00:14:09
they will get let off,
they'll be free to harm
00:14:11
other people.
00:14:13
- NARRATOR:
Tragically for Melissa,
00:14:15
the abusive Sweeney would
disappear off the police radar
00:14:18
once again.
00:14:20
When her work visa ran out
in the summer of 1988,
00:14:24
the couple decided
to move to Vienna, in Austria.
00:14:28
- STEVE: Sweeney and Melissa
were in Austria together,
00:14:31
and for a time-being,
everything would seem fine.
00:14:33
Work was good,
they were making a living,
00:14:35
and they were renting a property
in the center of Vienna.
00:14:39
- NARRATOR: But the romance
of a new city
00:14:41
would soon wear thin.
00:14:43
One night, after a drunken
argument,
00:14:45
Sweeney chased Melissa
with a hammer,
00:14:48
and hit her over the head.
00:14:50
- A hammer! I mean,
not just the fists,
00:14:54
a--a proper blunt instrument.
00:14:56
He attacks her
ruthlessly,
00:14:58
and is indeed taken
by the police
00:15:01
and thrown into jail.
00:15:04
- NARRATOR: Melissa was
rushed to hospital
00:15:06
with a fractured skull,
00:15:07
and this time,
Sweeney was jailed for assault.
00:15:11
In prison, he built up
a seething resentment
00:15:14
towards his girlfriend
for his predicament.
00:15:17
Here, Sweeney the artist
began sketching again,
00:15:20
with terrifying results.
00:15:23
- STEVE: Some of the drawings
and the pictures
00:15:25
that Sweeney had done were--
apart from very graphic
00:15:28
and very gruesome--
were confessional.
00:15:31
- We are talking about
an incredibly warped individual
00:15:36
with an imagination
that is so violent,
00:15:40
that is so depraved,
00:15:42
it's very difficult
to actually describe.
00:15:46
- NARRATOR: The most alarming
sketch he drew
00:15:48
in his prison cell was one
he sarcastically dubbed
00:15:52
"A romantic weekend
for two in Austria."
00:15:55
It was anything but romantic.
00:15:58
- LOUIS: One of the things
psychologists use
00:16:00
when they evaluate somebody
is ask them to draw pictures,
00:16:03
because the individual
in his drawings,
00:16:06
are projecting what's going on
internally into his artwork,
00:16:11
and I think the same could be
said with Sweeney.
00:16:13
If you look at what he drew,
it's an x-ray of his mind,
00:16:17
it's exactly what he was
thinking about.
00:16:19
You see that he was thinking
about killing and violence.
00:16:24
- NARRATOR: Melissa, meanwhile,
was on the road to recovery,
00:16:27
blissfully unaware of Sweeney's
dark drawings.
00:16:30
She took pity on her abuser,
and in February 1989,
00:16:34
made an unexpected move.
00:16:37
- Due to the legal system
in place in Austria at the time,
00:16:40
it was possible for a victim
to petition the judge
00:16:43
and effectively ask
for clemency,
00:16:46
which is what Melissa did.
00:16:48
And the judge, on hearing
her pleas for mercy,
00:16:50
released him.
00:16:52
- NARRATOR: Sweeney was
ordered to leave Vienna,
00:16:54
so the couple hit the road
once again,
00:16:57
traveling 700 miles northwest
00:16:59
to Amsterdam,
in the Netherlands.
00:17:02
- They rented a flat in
the center of Amsterdam,
00:17:05
very close to the central
railway station,
00:17:08
where they stayed for the whole
of 1989.
00:17:12
- NARRATOR: In November 1989,
00:17:14
Melissa phoned
her family in Ohio.
00:17:17
No one was in,
and she left a message.
00:17:21
- MELISSA:
Hi, Mom, it's Melissa,
00:17:22
I just called to wish you
happy birthday.
00:17:24
Have a good time,
and take care of yourself.
00:17:27
Goodbye, I love you.
00:17:30
- NARRATOR: It was her last
call home.
00:17:35
Six months later,
at the end of April 1990,
00:17:38
Sweeney exploded into a rage
from which there was no return.
00:17:44
- GEOFFREY: One of his fantasies
is dismembering female bodies.
00:17:49
It's horrifying to think of.
00:17:51
In this case, he kills Melissa.
00:17:54
We don't know for sure
exactly how.
00:17:57
I suspect with violence
of tremendous kind,
00:18:01
but we don't know because
he removed her head
00:18:04
and her hands.
00:18:06
He broke her spine in half,
00:18:09
collapsing the body,
00:18:12
and put it into a,
effectively, big, black bag.
00:18:16
- NARRATOR: Sweeney then
made a sharp exit
00:18:18
from Amsterdam to avoid
the finger of suspicion.
00:18:22
He took Melissa's dismembered
body with him
00:18:26
nearly 50 miles south,
to the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
00:18:30
- STEVE: What we still don't
know is how did he transport
00:18:32
Melissa from Amsterdam
to Rotterdam,
00:18:36
which is a fair distance.
00:18:38
He was a big lad, Sweeney,
I mean, he was strong,
00:18:41
and he could've got a train
or a coach.
00:18:43
If he keeps the bag with him,
it's possible to do,
00:18:46
so we figured that's probably
what he did.
00:18:48
- NARRATOR: Once in Rotterdam,
Sweeney made his way
00:18:51
to the Westersingel Canal,
00:18:53
which runs through the heart
of the city.
00:18:56
- STEVE: Obviously,
when it was quiet, maybe
00:18:57
under the cover of darkness--
he chose his moment just...
00:19:00
slipped his bag into
the canal, quite easy to do.
00:19:04
- GEOFFREY: She's simply
dropped into a canal
00:19:07
and left.
00:19:09
I think it is
a despicable crime.
00:19:12
Not just the matter
of the murder,
00:19:15
nor indeed just the matter
of the dismemberment,
00:19:18
but it's the denial of itself,
the denial of the individual,
00:19:22
the desecration of life
00:19:25
that makes it so poisonous
and so evil.
00:19:30
- NARRATOR: Soon, though,
the depths
00:19:32
of the Westersingel Canal
gave up its dark secret.
00:19:35
On May the 3rd, the bag
containing Melissa's torso
00:19:39
was spotted by a passerby
and reported to the police.
00:19:43
They opened it,
making the gruesome discovery.
00:19:48
The authorities were perplexed.
Who was this young woman?
00:19:52
- She was missing the key
body parts that you need
00:19:55
for identification,
so--there was no head,
00:19:58
so dental records couldn't
be used,
00:20:01
her hands were missing so
fingerprints couldn't be taken.
00:20:05
- STEVE: There was a formal
police investigation,
00:20:08
and extensive inquiries
were obviously made
00:20:10
into the possible identification
of the victim,
00:20:12
but unfortunately,
all came to nothing.
00:20:15
- NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Melissa's family were concerned
00:20:18
as the phone calls home
had stopped.
00:20:20
They hadn't spoken to her
for more than a year.
00:20:23
It was completely
out of character.
00:20:27
- STEVE: They did make inquiries
with the Amsterdam police,
00:20:31
but they really couldn't provide
much information.
00:20:34
They didn't know where
Melissa had been staying,
00:20:36
they certainly didn't know
where Sweeney was.
00:20:39
So really, from the Halstead
family's perspective,
00:20:43
it was a very worrying but a
very frustrating time for them.
00:20:48
- NARRATOR: Melissa's family
reported her missing
00:20:50
in Amsterdam,
00:20:52
but Rotterdam came under
a different police district.
00:20:55
This meant that the authorities
didn't link her disappearance
00:20:59
with the inquiry into
the headless torso.
00:21:02
- After a fairly short space
of time,
00:21:04
the investigation was closed
00:21:07
and the body was interred
in a public cemetery
00:21:10
in Rotterdam,
and that's where it remained.
00:21:14
- NARRATOR: Before long,
the dangerously free spirit,
00:21:17
Sweeney, was on the road
once again.
00:21:20
He'd got away with murder,
00:21:22
and soon the killer
and domestic abuser
00:21:24
was looking for his next victim.
00:21:29
Camden, northwest London, 1991.
00:21:34
34-year-old John Sweeney
met 40-year-old nurse
00:21:38
Delia Balmer in their local pub.
00:21:44
- DELIA: He asked me
if I'd like a beer,
00:21:46
and he told me he'd traveled
back and forth to Germany
00:21:49
to find work and because
I love traveling and...
00:21:52
I thought,
"Oh, he's a traveler,
00:21:53
he's the kind of guy
I would like."
00:21:57
- NARRATOR: After their
first encounter, weeks later,
00:22:00
Delia bumped into Sweeney
once again, on the street.
00:22:04
- DELIA: He asked me out, and
I says, "Oh, no, I'm too busy,"
00:22:07
and then I felt terrible,
because I'm silly and stupid,
00:22:10
and...I thought, "Oh, he might
think I'm awful and thing,"
00:22:13
and I wrote him a letter
in the end, I gave it to him
00:22:15
and started something
I should not have started.
00:22:18
- NARRATOR: Before she knew it,
the killer Sweeney
00:22:21
had swept Delia off her feet
and they were dating.
00:22:25
He laid on the charm,
fixing her broken window.
00:22:28
- I had nobody to help me
with anything ever,
00:22:30
and I thought, "Oh,
he's doing this for me,"
00:22:33
and, uh, then he started
bringing flowers and chocolates
00:22:38
and then in the end,
he ended up moving in with me.
00:22:43
- NARRATOR: Sweeney put his
carpentry skills to good use,
00:22:46
making stools, tables,
shelving, and even a bed
00:22:50
that Delia couldn't afford
to buy herself.
00:22:54
- ELIZABETH: You've got
the classic pattern of behavior
00:22:56
with a coercively controlling
abuser here.
00:22:59
He's this knight
in shining armor character,
00:23:02
he makes himself
indispensable to her,
00:23:05
and it doesn't take long,
though, for that veneer to crack
00:23:08
and for the real Sweeney
to shine through.
00:23:11
- DELIA: He made new
kitchen cupboards,
00:23:14
and the next day he came along
00:23:15
and deliberately scratched
the top,
00:23:17
I says, "What did you do
that for?"
00:23:20
I said, "They were nice,
and look, why do you do that?"
00:23:22
"Oh, it's nothing."
00:23:24
So, little things,
they mounted up, mounted up,
00:23:27
and then it got worse,
and, uh...
00:23:31
I wanted to get rid of him,
but I was afraid to ask.
00:23:35
And I thought,
"What am I gonna do?
00:23:36
I want him out of here."
00:23:39
- NARRATOR: After more than two
years of threatening behavior,
00:23:42
in December 1993,
00:23:44
Delia finally built up
the confidence to ask Sweeney
00:23:47
to leave.
00:23:49
He agreed but kept on
putting it off.
00:23:51
In the meantime, his
controlling behavior continued.
00:23:55
- I couldn't go anywhere,
he'd always go with me.
00:23:58
We'd go to the pub together,
we did everything together.
00:24:01
I knew I was in trouble,
00:24:03
and I didn't know how
to get out of it.
00:24:06
- It gives you s good insight
00:24:07
into Sweeney's behavior
with women.
00:24:10
Once you got into his orbit,
00:24:13
he was totally controlling
of you,
00:24:15
he just wanted to dominate
every aspect of you
00:24:19
and terrorize you,
and this gave
00:24:22
a great deal of erotic
gratification to Sweeney,
00:24:26
this was arousing to him,
to terrify somebody
00:24:30
and to have them totally under
your control and dominance.
00:24:34
- NARRATOR: In early May, 1994,
00:24:37
Delia managed to escape
his clutches
00:24:39
and went out
with a friend for the day.
00:24:42
When she returned, though,
00:24:44
Sweeney flew
into a jealous rage,
00:24:47
tying Delia to their bed
and threatening her
00:24:49
with a gun and a knife.
00:24:52
- DELIA: "If you scream,
I'll cut your tongue out,"
00:24:53
I think he said.
00:24:55
I was lying there, tied up,
and he said,
00:24:57
"And I suppose you wonder
what happened
00:24:59
to my American girlfriend,
Melissa?"
00:25:01
And I thought, "Well, why
does he ask me this now?"
00:25:05
And he said, "We had a room
in Amsterdam, I went in,
00:25:09
"there was two Germans there
with her, I killed them all.
00:25:13
"I didn't know what to do
with the bodies,
00:25:14
"I sat with them for three days,
00:25:16
"on the third day I cut them up,
and I put them in bags
00:25:19
and I threw them in the canal."
00:25:22
- NARRATOR: Delia now knew
the terrifying truth.
00:25:25
She'd been living with a killer.
00:25:27
And now he had her
as his hostage.
00:25:31
- I knew there was no way
of trying to get away.
00:25:36
I knew--it was as if
he could read my mind.
00:25:40
I didn't dare think
of doing anything,
00:25:42
and I knew better not to,
00:25:44
because he was very quick
and if I tried anything,
00:25:50
I'd probably have ended up
cut up or whatever.
00:25:53
- LOUIS:
I think it's terrorizing.
00:25:55
He's basically saying,
"If you don't listen
00:25:56
"to absolutely everything I say,
I'm gonna kill you
00:25:59
like I killed the other person,"
and it's just terrifying.
00:26:03
What Sweeney did
with the women is,
00:26:05
he wanted to break their mind,
00:26:08
so that he could control
absolutely everything,
00:26:11
their emotion, their behavior,
everything.
00:26:14
- NARRATOR: After a week
being held hostage,
00:26:16
Delia was finally released
to go back to work.
00:26:20
- STEVE: Throughout the summer
of 1994, Delia and Sweeney
00:26:23
did stay together
in the same flat, her flat.
00:26:27
But Sweeney was playing games.
00:26:29
He continually told her
that he was going to leave,
00:26:31
and then he would leave,
he'd come back,
00:26:33
and this went on for months.
00:26:35
- NARRATOR: In July,
Delia sought help
00:26:37
from a woman's refuge.
00:26:39
The police escorted her home
to her flat
00:26:42
while Sweeney was out.
00:26:44
She told them about his
macabre drawings
00:26:47
and his confession
to Melissa's murder.
00:26:50
- DELIA: I said, "Look,
he was in Amsterdam
00:26:52
"with his girlfriend and he
cut up his girlfriend
00:26:55
and the two Germans."
00:26:57
They said, "Oh, come on, now,
he's just trying to scare you."
00:27:00
And I thought, "Oh, yeah, sure,
00:27:02
just what I thought
you would say."
00:27:03
Well, they didn't take that,
00:27:05
and then they didn't look
at the drawings.
00:27:08
- NARRATOR: Sweeney finally
moved out
00:27:09
at the beginning of November,
00:27:12
so Delia seized her chance
and changed her locks.
00:27:15
Sweeney was enraged
when he discovered this.
00:27:19
On Friday, the 11th of November,
he broke in and launched
00:27:22
a surprise attack by ramming
his fingers down her throat.
00:27:27
- DELIA: The pain was
excruciating.
00:27:29
Then, he took his fingers out,
he held his fingers up,
00:27:31
he says, "You bit me!"
00:27:34
His fingers were
covered in blood.
00:27:36
And I opened my mouth
and large clots of blood,
00:27:40
about the size of a tablespoon,
00:27:42
spilled out of my mouth
onto the floor.
00:27:45
I said, "It's not your blood,
you've damaged me inside."
00:27:51
And then he dragged me up
and took me to the front room.
00:27:54
- NARRATOR: The next day,
Delia managed to escape
00:27:57
to a police station,
but when she was escorted home,
00:28:00
Sweeney was nowhere
to be seen.
00:28:03
The following day,
the determined abuser
00:28:05
attacked her as she left home,
00:28:08
and forced her back
into her flat.
00:28:10
When Delia missed an appointment
to meet a friend,
00:28:13
the police were alerted
and officers called
00:28:16
at Delia's door.
00:28:18
- DELIA: I went to the door,
he followed behind,
00:28:20
and just out of my mouth,
there was the policeman there,
00:28:24
the police female there,
I said, "Help me!"
00:28:28
and I rushed out of the door
and down the street.
00:28:32
- ELIZABETH: What we see
in the second attack
00:28:34
is an escalation in the level
of violence that Sweeney
00:28:37
is prepared to use
to take back control.
00:28:40
Um, Delia nearly had
her tongue ripped out,
00:28:42
and I think he possibly
would have killed her
00:28:45
in this second attack,
00:28:46
had her friend not called
the police
00:28:48
and they turned up
at the property.
00:28:52
- NARRATOR: When police search
Delia's flat,
00:28:54
behind her bath panel,
they found a mysterious bag.
00:28:58
In it were tools showing
Sweeney's murderous intentions.
00:29:02
- Inside the holdall was
a tarpaulin, masking tape,
00:29:07
uh, surgical gloves,
and masks,
00:29:10
and also lengths of rope.
00:29:12
And I would describe
the holdall and its contents
00:29:15
as a killer's kit bag.
00:29:17
But unfortunately,
they didn't realize
00:29:19
the significance of what these
items could really be.
00:29:23
- NARRATOR: Sweeney was arrested
and held on remand
00:29:25
in Pentonville Prison
for a week.
00:29:28
He was released on condition
that he'd return
00:29:30
to his parents' home
in Skelmersdale,
00:29:33
in the north of England,
200 miles away from Delia.
00:29:37
But on the 22nd of December,
00:29:39
he broke his bail conditions
when he once again
00:29:43
started staking out
her London home.
00:29:46
- This one night,
there was no one on the street,
00:29:50
it was the darkest day
of the year...
00:29:53
- NARRATOR: As usual, Delia
propped open her front door
00:29:56
with a brick,
then went back down her steps
00:29:59
to pick up her bike.
00:30:01
- I was halfway up the stairs
with the bicycle.
00:30:03
I kept looking from side
to side,
00:30:06
wondering if he was hiding.
00:30:08
Then I looked right,
and there his face was.
00:30:13
I quickly kicked the brick
and let the door shut.
00:30:18
I thought, "I've got to face
him out here,
00:30:20
"if he gets inside there
with me,
00:30:22
he's gonna cut me to bits."
00:30:24
- NARRATOR: Sweeney pulled out
and axe and swung it
00:30:27
at Delia's arms.
00:30:28
The killer then reached
for a knife.
00:30:32
- DELIA: He cut his palm,
00:30:33
and he says,
"You fucking bitch!"
00:30:36
Then he stabbed me through
the breast into the lung.
00:30:39
Then he stabbed me in the thigh.
00:30:42
Then he swung the axe,
and he took my finger
00:30:44
and he...got the knuckles
of the other two,
00:30:48
and I saw my finger fly
through the air, to next door.
00:30:52
- NARRATOR: Delia threw her bike
on top of herself
00:30:55
to protect her from the blows.
00:30:57
The noise of the axe
crashing down on the bike
00:30:59
brought a neighbor outside.
00:31:01
He beats Sweeney
with a baseball bat
00:31:03
and the killer fled
into the night.
00:31:06
- She has the forethought
to kick the brick away
00:31:11
so that the door to her flat
slams shut.
00:31:15
Had she not done that,
she would almost certainly
00:31:18
have lost her life.
00:31:20
- NARRATOR: Delia was rushed
to hospital,
00:31:22
she had two broken arms,
two stab wounds
00:31:25
in the thigh and chest,
a severed little finger,
00:31:28
and a punctured lung.
00:31:30
She was given 19 units of blood
as surgeons fought
00:31:33
to save her life.
00:31:35
Psychologically, though,
Delia felt defeated.
00:31:39
- DELIA: I wasn't fighting
for my life,
00:31:41
I didn't want to live,
00:31:43
the medical lot were fighting
for my life, I wanted to die.
00:31:47
I didn't care anymore,
I wanted to be dead.
00:31:53
- NARRATOR: Before the police
could find him,
00:31:55
Sweeney went on the run.
00:31:58
Fleeing 65 miles north,
to Northampton,
00:32:02
then on to his hometown of
Skelmersdale, then he vanished.
00:32:07
- STEVE: After the attack
on Delia,
00:32:08
he really goes off the radar.
00:32:10
He manages somehow to get out
of the UK and he goes on the run
00:32:15
effectively for six years.
00:32:19
- NARRATOR: Sweeney had
the gall to write to police
00:32:21
whilst on the run,
sarcastically claiming
00:32:24
Delia's attack was
an "axeident."
00:32:27
Soon, he'd return to his
disturbing drawings,
00:32:30
portraying revenge on the women
who'd scorned him.
00:32:35
London, England, the year 2000.
00:32:40
After six years on the run,
44-year-old John Sweeney
00:32:45
slid back into the UK capital
under a new identity.
00:32:53
- ELIZABETH: Sweeney has
quite a lot of aliases,
00:32:55
names that he's known by,
he's not just John Sweeney,
00:32:58
he's Joe Scouse--Scouse Joe,
and, you know,
00:33:01
a whole list of, uh,
other names.
00:33:04
- GEOFFREY: Michael this,
Joe Johnson,
00:33:07
that was one of Sweeney's
other great tricks.
00:33:10
He could hide in plain sight.
00:33:12
He was so--was quite adept
at looking rather different.
00:33:16
If you look at photographs
of Sweeney,
00:33:18
he can adopt different guises,
00:33:21
he is quite skillful
at disguise.
00:33:25
- ELIZABETH:
So I think this adds
00:33:26
to his comedian-like quality,
00:33:29
and it allows him to present
different versions of himself
00:33:32
to different people.
00:33:35
- NARRATOR: Sweeney roamed
building site to building site,
00:33:38
finding easy work as a carpenter
in a booming capital.
00:33:43
Here, he met fellow
Liverpudlian,
00:33:45
31-year-old Paula Fields.
00:33:48
She'd led a happy life
in the northwest,
00:33:50
until she was drawn into
London's darker side
00:33:54
of drugs and prostitution.
00:33:56
- ELIZABETH: So Paula was
quite a vulnerable individual,
00:33:59
she'd moved from Liverpool
to London,
00:34:01
she had some drug
dependency issues,
00:34:04
and Sweeney, being the predator
that he is,
00:34:07
would've honed in on that
very, very quickly.
00:34:10
He would've identified the fact
they both came from Liverpool,
00:34:13
so there was that affinity
there.
00:34:15
- LOUIS: Unlike Delia,
Paula was, uh,
00:34:17
involved in prostitution
and she was somewhat
00:34:19
of a street person, so you would
think somebody like Paula
00:34:22
would have some street smarts
where she would be able
00:34:25
to detect somebody like Sweeney
trying to get over on her.
00:34:29
It tells you how crafty
and how cunning
00:34:32
and how manipulative
Sweeney was.
00:34:36
- NARRATOR:
Like other women in his life,
00:34:38
Sweeney,
also known as Scouse Joe,
00:34:41
built up a seething resentment
towards her.
00:34:44
- She would buy drugs
from a local dealer,
00:34:47
and without having the funds,
00:34:48
she would tell the dealer
that Joe Scouse would pay,
00:34:51
so the next thing that would
happen would be the dealer
00:34:53
would be banging
on Joe Scouse's window
00:34:55
asking for payment.
00:34:57
And this would've upset him
greatly, I suspect.
00:35:00
- NARRATOR: Sweeney also
accused Paula of stealing
00:35:02
his mobile phone.
00:35:04
His resentment continued
to build,
00:35:07
and one day in December,
it flew out of control.
00:35:11
He violently attacked Paula
and ended up killing her.
00:35:16
- GEOFFREY: Yet again,
those same fantasies
00:35:18
come to the surface,
00:35:20
those fantasies
of dismemberment,
00:35:22
and this time he, again,
cuts Paula's head off.
00:35:27
He also takes off her hands,
and this time, also her feet.
00:35:32
The remains of her...is cut up
into separate parts
00:35:37
and placed in holdalls.
00:35:40
- NARRATOR: Once again,
Sweeney disposed of his victim
00:35:43
in a waterway,
the region's canal
00:35:45
in North West London.
00:35:47
Two months later,
on the 19th of February, 2001,
00:35:52
a bag containing Paula's
body parts was found
00:35:55
by boys who were fishing.
00:35:58
The police were called,
and five more gruesome holdalls
00:36:02
were recovered.
00:36:03
Then, a full-blown
murder inquiry began.
00:36:07
- Within a very short
period of time,
00:36:08
they--they got a match
with the DNA from...
00:36:11
a woman called Paula Fields
from Liverpool.
00:36:13
They very quickly established
that she'd had a relationship
00:36:17
with this tall Liverpudlian man
who they called Joe Scouse
00:36:22
or Scouse Joe.
00:36:24
- NARRATOR: Before long,
police inquiries link
00:36:27
Scouse Joe
to John Patrick Sweeney,
00:36:30
and he soon became Britain's
most wanted man.
00:36:33
Just a month later,
police surveillance
00:36:36
found Sweeney working at a
building site off Fleet Street.
00:36:40
The net was finally
closing in.
00:36:43
- STEVE: So they then get
an armed surveillance team
00:36:46
from Central London
to tail Sweeney,
00:36:48
and of course, they jump on him,
00:36:50
just as he's entering
the building site,
00:36:52
and that's how he gets nicked.
00:36:55
- GEOFFREY: When the police
finally confront Sweeney,
00:36:58
he is armed, he has a gun,
00:37:01
and he has a knife
in his waistband,
00:37:04
but finally, finally,
00:37:07
this evil man
is brought to justice.
00:37:11
- NARRATOR: After his arrest,
police seized over 300 pieces
00:37:15
of his sinister artwork
and poems at his property.
00:37:19
- STEVE: In his room,
they find drawings and sketches,
00:37:22
a lot of them showing very
macabre subjects
00:37:25
like dismembered bodies,
00:37:26
and pictures of him with an axe
in his belt, etc.
00:37:30
Also is found two loaded
shotguns,
00:37:32
and there's also a garrote.
00:37:35
- NARRATOR: One drawing
police found was
00:37:37
menacingly entitled,
"The Scalp Hunter."
00:37:41
- GEOFFREY: It's clear
what it's supposed to portray,
00:37:43
it's actually him, uh,
with an axe in his waistband,
00:37:47
and hanging from his waistband
is a blonde scalp,
00:37:50
which is clearly meant
to be Delia.
00:37:53
And of course,
on the picture is a credit
00:37:56
to Delia, if I can call it that,
by Sweeney,
00:37:58
where he says to her,
"May you die in pain."
00:38:01
And I think that, to me,
sums up the contempt
00:38:04
he had for Delia.
00:38:06
- NARRATOR: After six years
of hunting for Delia's attacker,
00:38:10
the police charge 44-year-old
John Sweeney
00:38:13
with her attempted murder,
false imprisonment,
00:38:16
and firearms offenses.
00:38:19
On March the 5th, 2002,
at the Old Bailey,
00:38:22
he received four life sentences.
00:38:25
Despite his punishment,
the reality was
00:38:28
that Sweeney could be out
on parole
00:38:30
in as little as nine years.
00:38:33
Police needed to prove
he was responsible
00:38:35
for Paula Fields' murder
to prevent him from getting out.
00:38:39
- STEVE: The investigation
into the death of Paula
00:38:41
carried on for some
considerable time,
00:38:43
but unfortunately, due...
effectively to a lack
00:38:46
of evidence,
the inquiry really fizzled out
00:38:49
and no one was ever charged at
that stage for Paula's killing.
00:38:53
- NARRATOR: Investigators
had hit a brick wall,
00:38:55
but six years later,
in 2008,
00:38:58
detective inspector Steve Smith
had a call out of the blue
00:39:02
from a Dutch policeman
about an unidentified body
00:39:06
they'd found in Rotterdam's
Westersingel Canal in 1990.
00:39:11
- STEVE: What he had to tell me
was quite amazing.
00:39:14
They'd managed to recover
a phial of blood
00:39:16
that was taken from
the post mortem examination
00:39:18
of the dismembered female,
00:39:20
but with the advancement
in DNA,
00:39:22
they had managed to obtain
a full profile of the victim.
00:39:26
The DNA match was that
of Melissa Halstead.
00:39:30
- NARRATOR: With this new
breakthrough and Sweeney's
00:39:32
earlier confession to Delia
about Melissa's killing,
00:39:36
Steve Smith and his Metropolitan
Police team formed
00:39:39
the first ever joint European
murder inquiry,
00:39:42
sanctioned by Europol.
00:39:45
Sweeney was their prime suspect.
00:39:48
- STEVE: Here we had Sweeney
that was involved
00:39:50
in relationships with both
Melissa and Paula.
00:39:53
And both women had ended up
as dismembered,
00:39:57
body parts had been removed,
and both put into canals.
00:40:00
I mean, that for us was
way beyond any coincidence,
00:40:04
so he had to be the man
responsible.
00:40:07
- NARRATOR: As Melissa's murder
had taken place
00:40:09
nearly 20 years earlier,
detectives would struggle
00:40:12
for any forensic evidence
linking Sweeney to her killing,
00:40:17
but scientific analysis
of one of his sketches
00:40:20
would help prove his guilt.
00:40:22
- STEVE: One particular drawing,
"One Man Band,"
00:40:25
what was of particular
interest to us was
00:40:27
some correction fluid
in the middle of the picture,
00:40:30
which, when the scientists
looked beneath the fluid
00:40:32
using particular
light techniques,
00:40:35
you could see that it was
an RIP message
00:40:37
to Melissa Halstead.
00:40:39
How would he have known
that she was dead?
00:40:41
Only the killer would know,
so to write "RIP" was, to us,
00:40:45
quite telling.
00:40:47
- ELIZABETH: He's so arrogant
that he thinks that just
00:40:49
correcting over it,
it is going to destroy
00:40:53
any evidence linking it
to Melissa's death,
00:40:55
but he's not going to let go
of this piece of artwork,
00:40:59
because it gives him power
and that sense of control
00:41:01
that he so wants.
00:41:03
- NARRATOR: As police delve
deeper into Sweeney's sketches,
00:41:06
they found two drawings
they also believed
00:41:09
were clearly confessional.
00:41:11
- STEVE: One is of a female
body where the head
00:41:13
and hands are removed,
in the fetal position,
00:41:16
which of course resembled
how Melissa was found
00:41:18
within the bag.
00:41:20
And then the other one
was of interest to us,
00:41:22
was a dismembered female form
cut into sections,
00:41:25
which is exactly, really,
how Paula was found
00:41:27
in the different bags.
00:41:30
- NARRATOR: But a poem
he'd scrawled on the back
00:41:32
of a lottery card was the golden
nugget that sealed the deal.
00:41:37
- STEVE: The poem read,
"Poor old Melissa,
00:41:39
"chopped her up in bits,
food to feed the fish,
00:41:41
Amsterdam was the pits."
00:41:43
Now, that to me, tells you
everything you need to know
00:41:45
about what he'd done
to Melissa,
00:41:48
and again,
that's really confessional.
00:41:52
- NARRATOR: Senior investigating
officer Steve Smith
00:41:55
was confident they'd now built
their case against Sweeney.
00:42:00
- STEVE: We did struggle,
really, with a complete lack
00:42:02
of hard forensic evidence.
00:42:05
We had what we described
as similar fact evidence.
00:42:07
So you had the relationships
with both women,
00:42:10
and these series of drawings
that were confessional,
00:42:13
and a real nugget that we had
that Sweeney was really
00:42:17
gonna struggle with,
was his confession to Delia
00:42:19
in 1994 about killing Melissa.
00:42:23
- NARRATOR: Nearly 21 years
after Melissa's death
00:42:26
and more than ten years
after Paula's,
00:42:28
the case was finally heard
against John Sweeney
00:42:31
at the Old Bailey in London.
00:42:34
On April the 4th, 2011,
the 54-year-old killer
00:42:39
was found guilty on two counts
of murder
00:42:41
and perverting
the course of justice.
00:42:44
- It's incredibly significant
for me that Sweeney received
00:42:46
a whole life order.
00:42:48
He will never be released
from prison.
00:42:51
This is reserved for the crimes
that cause the most harm,
00:42:54
for the offenders least likely
to be rehabilitated.
00:42:59
- GEOFFREY: The most famous
photograph of Sweeney,
00:43:02
the one that's used
almost everywhere,
00:43:05
there was just the faintest
hint of a smirk.
00:43:10
That smirk conceals
the serial killer's delight
00:43:14
in knowing something
that nobody else does,
00:43:16
and the delight in not allowing
the family of the victims
00:43:21
complete closure.
00:43:23
It is utterly,
utterly depraved.
00:43:26
- NARRATOR: Although he's
never been charged
00:43:28
for any other murders,
00:43:30
police believe Sweeney's
sinister artworks
00:43:33
could contain clues
to even more killings.
00:43:37
- STEVE Contained within
Sweeney's artwork
00:43:39
were some pictures
of other women,
00:43:42
in particular two women
which we've never actually
00:43:43
managed to trace.
00:43:45
It's quite possible that
there may be other victims.
00:43:49
- ♪
00:43:53
- NARRATOR: He was possessive
and controlling,
00:43:55
a serial domestic abuser
who thought nothing
00:43:59
of torturing his partners
and holding them hostage.
00:44:03
The women who escaped did so
through a sheer determination
00:44:07
to survive.
00:44:09
He brutally murdered
two lovers,
00:44:11
and removed their heads
and hands in the hope
00:44:14
they would never be identified.
00:44:17
That makes John Sweeney one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:44:22
- ♪
00:44:35
♪♪
00:44:46
- [swish]
