All language subtitles for Believe me my partner is a serial killer.1080p.HDTV.AV1.AAC.MVGroup.org

Delia Barmer spent three years
unknowingly living with serial killer

Sweeney. He had the axe over his head
ready to finish me off. I put my hands

over my face and shut my eyes ready to
die.

Delia's life with Sweeney was dominated
by violence and coercive control.

He had ropes there ready. He grabbed my
arms and he put me back and tied my

wrists to the bed.

Bound by Sweeney's hold on her, Escape
was not an option.

I had to find a way out, but I didn't
know what to do.

After a series of violent attacks on
Delia, John Sweeney went on the run

attempting to kill her on her own
doorstep.

He goes underground, but at the same
time he hides in plain sight.

It would take years for the horror of
his violence and depths of depravity to

come to light.

An officer behind the bath panel found
what can only be described as a killer's

kit bag.

It was all there, with all the things
ready to chop me up.

What would unfold is the story of a man
so dangerous, his reign of terror

spanned more than three decades and
several international borders.

Melissa Halston told her sister that if
anything ever happened to her, it would

be John Sweeney that had done it and he
would leave nothing left behind.

Evading capture, he preyed on his next
victim.

He didn't have any particular geographic
base.

He didn't have any particular emotional
base.

Despite going to extreme lengths to
conceal the evidence of his crimes, he

celebrated the savage attacks on his
victim in his artwork, creating images

would eventually lead to his downfall.

They found the most extraordinary array
of artwork and poetry of the most dark

and sinister nature.

His actions would lead British and
European officers on a large -scale hunt

evidence in a race to convict him before
he was free to strike again.

This investigation will continue as we
seek to identify and trace other

victims. I think, without doubt, he's
probably one of the most cruel

I've ever had the misfortune to come
across.

The impact of surviving the level of
violence when it inflicts upon Delia is

going to be intense.

He'd done it to Melissa and Paula
Fields. You did the same. You would have

it to me. That was the idea.

In 1991, Australian -born nurse Delia
Barmer moved into a council flat on

Grove in Kentish Town.

I'd left a job in a hospital. Work was
hard to find at the time.

I had been cycling maybe an hour to get
to a hospital that I wasn't acquainted

with, and it was very difficult, so I
stopped working for a while.

Delia struggled to fill her days.

It was a bank holiday Monday.

I didn't know what to do with myself. I
didn't usually go to the pub on a

Monday. I'd been going to the Carnarvon
Castle to listen to bands and to dance

because I loved dancing. I wanted to be
a dancer, but it got too crowded. So I

went around the corner to the Holly
Arms. It was very quiet in there.

A guy came into the pub, he sat at the
other end of the bar, and he kept

at me, and that was John Sweeney.

I was trying to avoid looking at him
because I didn't want another disaster

another boyfriend.

I like guys, but I didn't want any more
disasters, and I tried not to look

at him. He said, would you like a drink?

And I thought, oh, well, it wouldn't
harm just to have one drink, somebody to

talk to.

So we sat down.

That's how it started.

There was an attraction there. John
Sweeney was a bohemian individual. He

to draw and sketch.

Delia would have found this quite
attractive because she had quite a

lifestyle herself.

Having gone their separate ways, another
encounter with Sweeney two months later

would lead to the pair seeing more of
each other.

It was quite a while later that I met
him on the street. He said, oh, if you

want to go out or something, and I said,
no, I'm too busy.

I ended up seeing him.

Turned out he was living in a squat.

on the other side of Leyton Road in
Kentish Town and it was just near where

lived. He is very socially skilled and
he's very good at impression management

and he knows what he needs to say in
order to connect with someone.

He can almost smell her vulnerability.

Their relationship grew and they became
great friends and a while later John

Sweeney moved into her flat in Kentish
Town.

Sweeney was looking for a nice, comfy
billet to settle down in, and her flat

the Kentish town was perfect for his
purposes.

So he was more than happy to settle with
Delia. Sweeney was really drawn to the

fact that Delia was so vulnerable. She
was isolated, she was alone, and he was

aware that actually he could become the
centre of her world quite easily, and he

kind of presented himself as a knight in
shining armour, someone to rescue her.

He charmed her.

I needed someone because I felt so
alone.

And I thought he was helping me.

I told him that I had a problem with the
window. And he said, oh, I'll come and

fix it tomorrow night.

And I was surprised he did come and fix
it. I didn't ask him to.

I didn't have any furniture.

He said he'd make a bed. I said, oh,
make a futon.

From work, he'd bring back wood like oak
that he brought back, and it was too

heavy to use a futon. But anyway, it
worked as a bed.

And then he made a narrow table, just
enough to fit two plates on at either

and two stools. And he put in new
cupboards in one side of the kitchen as

What's interesting about Sweeney is that
he used the tools of his trade to

further embed himself in Delia's life.

We also know that carpentry was his
second choice career.

He wanted to be an artist.

So it's interesting the fact that
actually something he wasn't naturally

to becomes the mechanism by which he
kind of deceives, manipulates and

and dominates and in extreme cases
annihilates people.

I thought he cared and looked after me.

And I was alone.

He was incredibly aware of the power of
acts of service. For someone who is

vulnerable, for someone who feels very
alone, for someone who feels quite

helpless, having someone there who not
only is available but actually wants to

help you is really, really powerful. And
it's a very, very difficult thing to

resist.

Well, he used to buy me flowers and
chocolates I'd already heard about.

People buying flowers and chocolates and
hitting people, but I thought, oh no,

he wouldn't do that.

But behind Sweeney's charm and
generosity lay a vicious temper and a

rage, and it wasn't long before this
bubbled to the surface of their

relationship.

Sweeney was really socially skilled. He
knew how to hide the darker parts of his

personality, and they would only shine
through when he was thwarted or

didn't go the way he wanted or someone
didn't do what he wanted.

We needed a mattress for this futon, so
he went to the shop to buy the mattress

to Finchley Road.

Then he came back.

But he was really angry and it was the
wrong place. He had to go all the way

down to Holly Road to collect this
mattress. So he was swearing and really

getting angry about that.

And that's when I first saw him angry.

As the months went on, Delia realised
she'd made a terrible mistake.

He told me he drew.

And he says, someday I'll show you my
drawings.

And he did.

And there was a picture of him and
Melissa.

And I said, who is that?

He said, oh, that was my American
girlfriend, Melissa.

I said, oh, well, where is she?

Five years earlier, in the mid -1980s,
unemployment figures in the UK soared,

reaching a record three million.

Amongst those desperate for work was
carpenter and tradesman John Sweeney.

Brought up in Skelmersdale, just outside
Liverpool, throughout the early 80s,

Sweeney drifted from job to job on
building sites around mainland Europe

UK, with the itinerant nature of his
work seemingly preventing him from

down any significant roots.

In the mid -1980s, he arrived in London,
and his fortunes appeared to take an

unexpected upturn when he met American
model Melissa Halstead.

In December 1986... John Sweeney landed
on his feet when he came to London, met

an attractive American model from Ohio
working in the West End, and

they started living together in some of
the most exclusive areas of London, the

King's Road, Sloane Square, Chelsea's
Finest.

John Sweeney was working as a carpenter,
and he was working on a set for a

fashion shoot at which Melissa was
working as a photographer, and that's

they first met.

John had quite a bohemian lifestyle.

By that I mean he would draw sketches
and then smoke cannabis together.

So there seemed to be a mutual
attraction between the two.

John Sweeney thought that he had an
artistic gene in him, which must have

attracted Melissa.

She was interested in the arts. So they
had something in common and that's what

drew them together.

At that time she would have been a
stranger to London, although she was

in a fashionable area.

She probably would not have had too many
friends, and John was somebody who knew

the London life.

As an American coming to London at that
point, where she was living, it would

have been a good time for her. She would
have missed her family and friends, but

the relationship with John would have
been one that she would probably have

satisfied with.

But as Delia would find out years later,
anger was never far from the surface of

their relationship.

A heavy user of drugs and alcohol,
Sweeney was a violent and abusive

and he was convicted twice for
assaulting Melissa, describing their

as love -hate.

It was a series of running scuffles,
fights, disputes, presumably followed

then by wonderful loving make -up. To
her family almost 4 ,000 miles away in

Midwest, the attraction was a mystery,
but Melissa assured them it was love.

unwittingly she had become entangled in
the web of one of Britain's most

dangerous men.

In 1991, Delia Balmer met John Sweeney
in a London bar.

A short time later they were living
together, but Sweeney's well -travelled

generous image belied a violent and
dangerous past.

Just five years earlier, Sweeney moved
in with American photographer and model

Melissa Halstead.

And within months, their relationship
had descended into a desperate spiral of

violence and control.

Melissa's sister came over from America
and stayed with them in their Chelsea

flat on one occasion.

And she witnessed the acrimony within
their relationship for herself.

She took an instant dislike to John
Sweeney and felt that he was not right

her sister.

She could see how he was treating
Melissa and how abusive the relationship

She posed a threat to the situation that
he had carefully crafted.

In 1987, Melissa's UK visa expired.

The following year, immigration services
caught up with her and she was

deported. With her family urging her to
escape the over -controlling clutches of

Sweeney, Melissa fled to mainland Europe
and moved into a flat in Vienna.

But Sweeney would not let go and
eventually tracked her down in the

capital. The love of his life was
leaving, and as far as he was concerned,

he didn't really want that relationship
to end, so he followed her.

After two years together in London,
Melissa had the chance to break away

Sweeney once and for all and leave him
behind in London.

So she took the opportunity to go to
Europe.

Unfortunately, Sweeney followed her
every step of the way.

When Melissa left London, this would
have been intolerable for Sweeney

he would have seen this as Melissa
choosing her life over him and that was

what this was about.

And Sweeney's barrage of mental and
physical abuse continued on the

Upon his arrival in Vienna, Sweeney
stalked Melissa, finding out where she

lived, before breaking into her flat,
tying her up and interrogating her.

Days later, in a typically violent row,
Sweeney attacked Melissa with a hammer,

cracking her skull, resulting in her
requiring emergency surgery.

This was a moment, surely, when he would
be put away and she would be free from

him. For the brutal attack on Melissa,
Sweeney was arrested and sentenced to 12

months in an Austrian prison.

Melissa made a number of phone calls to
her sister at this time, basically

opening her heart about her relationship
with John Sweeney.

and they were to reveal this horrendous
clash in her own mind, whether to stay

with the man she had this attraction
with, despite the violence, or to sever

for her life once and for all.

During this time, Melissa was speaking
to her sister in America.

Her sister had seen Sweeney firsthand.

She knew that actually he was bad news,
and she tried to share that with

Melissa. Although Melissa trusted her
sister...

It was very difficult to take what her
sister was saying on board and actually

separate from Sweeney.

And she told the sister that if anything
ever happened to her, that is Melissa,

it would be John Sweeney that had done
it and he would leave nothing left

behind.

Despite this seemingly chilling
prediction, Melissa, crippled by her

anxiety, made an emotional appeal to
Austrian authorities for Sweeney's early

release.

He actually did manage to control
Melissa Halstead in a way that she

really have predicted because having
battered her really grievously, he

to get her to release him from prison by
being really charming and sorry.

She couldn't break away from him and it
was the cost of her life.

With Austrian authorities unable to
charge Sweeney with attempted murder or

attempted manslaughter, Sweeney was
found guilty of the lesser charge of

aggravated assault and was sentenced to
just 12 months in prison.

In 1989, Sweeney was released early,
having only served six months for the

brutal hammer attack on Melissa.

In search of a new start, the couple
moved to Amsterdam.

and life initially appeared to settle
down.

Melissa was living her life, but this
also represented a situation that John

couldn't control.

He didn't know what Melissa had been
doing.

And again, we have to hold in mind that
if Melissa has friends or contacts, they

pose a threat to the relationship, the
control that he's trying to gain over

her, and it needs to be eliminated.

So what does Sweeney do? He proposes
that Melissa and him move to Amsterdam

under the guise of a fresh start.

But what he's really trying to do is
gain control of the situation by making

sure that he is the one that has contact
with her. And this means that she

severs ties with anyone who could
threaten the situation that he's

constructing.

I settled in a flat. Melissa was
working.

Sweeney gave the impression that he was
looking for work.

The landlord thought they were model
tenants.

A nice couple, paid their rent on time.

caused no trouble, seemed to get on with
everybody.

Later that year, 33 -year -old Melissa
made a phone call home to her family in

America.

Tragically for them, no -one was home to
take the call.

What they couldn't have realised was
that it would be the last time they

hear from their daughter.

Auburn Melissa was many miles away from
her family.

She would always make sure that she
would contact her mother on her

and that would have been sometime in
November of each year.

which she did on the last occasion that
she contacted the family, and she left a

message on an answer phone to her mom,
basically wishing her a happy birthday.

Hi, Mom, it's Melissa. I just called to
wish you a happy birthday.

I'm going to be getting a fax machine
sometime soon, so I'll call and be able

leave that number with you anyway.

Have a good time and take care of
yourself.

Goodbye. I love you.

Unfortunately, that was the last
occasion that the family had any contact

her.

In Amsterdam, alone and thousands of
miles from home, Melissa's relationship

with Sweeney continued to be dogged by
physical and emotional abuse.

But Sweeney's propensity for violence
and intimidation towards his partners

stretched back to years earlier and his
life as a young husband in the northwest

of England.

John Sweeney was from the Liverpool
area. He grew up in Skelmersdale, very

to Liverpool.

He was in a family with two brothers and
a sister.

From our information, he had quite a
tyrannical father and very, very strict

upbringing. John Sweeney was a carpenter
by trade.

He was something of an itinerant
Liverpudlian who moved around Europe and

UK. He didn't have any particular
geographic base and he didn't have any

particular emotional base.

He moved from relationship to
relationship and it didn't really matter

he happened to be in.

Aged just 20, John Sweeney returned home
to Scalmersdale.

There he met and married local woman
Anne Bramley.

Two children soon followed, but John and
Anne's fledgling marriage was an

unhappy one from the outset.

Anne Bramley was John Sweeney's first
wife, and it was, I think it's fair to

say, quite a tempestuous relationship.

There's certainly evidence that we
uncovered as a result of our inquiries

there was violence within the marriage.

In fact...

Sweeney's behaviour was so unstable due
to his heavy drinking that Anne had

asked him to leave the family home.

But John Sweeney had other ideas.

Anne was at a neighbour's house just for
a social visit.

When they heard a noise next door, an
officer attended the property and on

searching the house, John Sweeney jumped
out from behind a wardrobe door,

brandishing a hammer and an axe.

He did it to surprise Anne.

So one might think that was quite a
surprise she would have got.

It's horrifying to think what may have
happened if the policeman hadn't been

there and it had been Anne that had
searched the house on her own.

John Sweeney was immediately arrested at
the scene.

Terrified, Anne and her young family
relocated to a secret location elsewhere

the country.

Unbeknownst to her, Sweeney has followed
her.

So we're already starting to see his
predatory stalking behaviour from her

age. We can see how Sweeney uses fear,
terror and violence to get what he

which is control.

And he's not afraid to use weapons in
order to achieve that aim.

Weeks later, Sweeney was found guilty of
a breach of the peace and ordered to

stay away from Anne.

Seemingly accepting defeat, he moved to
London.

Four years later, the ongoing torment of
his next victim, Melissa Halstead,

continued to escalate on mainland
Europe.

She was obviously besotted by him as
well. For her to have been significantly

attacked by him and receiving
significant injuries, she was still

remain in a relationship with him.

In April 1990, John and Melissa's
landlord were surprised to return from

Easter holidays.

to find their apartment completely
empty.

The landlord had occasion to go round to
the flat, and when he entered, having

got no reply, the flat had been emptied
of both Melissa's and John Sweeney's

belongings, and all that remained was a
large mirror.

Just a few weeks later, on the 3rd of
May, two young boys spot a duffel bag

floating in the Vesta Single Canal,
almost 60 miles away from Amsterdam, in

port city of Rotterdam.

So they rang the police who attended and
managed to get the holdall to the side

where it was removed.

And as the holdall was placed on the
side of the canal, there was clearly

leaking from it, so it was quite obvious
that something suspicious was inside.

When the holdall was opened, there was a
dismembered body of a female contained

inside, tied up with rope.

The body was removed to...

a local mortuary where a post -mortem
examination was conducted.

They wouldn't have had any opportunity
at that point to have identified who

individual was.

They didn't have any other DNA that they
could have matched with it, so they

would have taken samples from those
remains and that would have been stored

until such time that they had something
to compare it with.

With no way of identifying the female
found in the canal, the investigation

shelved and the case went cold.

One month later... Police in Amsterdam
received a call from Melissa's mother in

Ohio.

Aware of her daughter's unstable
relationship with Sweeney, Melissa's

grown concerned for her welfare, having
not heard from her since the answer

phone message she left six months
earlier.

Dutch detectives visited their by now
deserted apartment.

The family were concerned that they had
no means of contacting Melissa, who, as

far as they knew, was just somewhere on
the other side of the world, pursuing

whatever she was pursuing.

either her modelling or her photography
work, neither did they have any means of

contacting John Sweeney. The contact
would have had to come from Melissa

herself. When Melissa's family become
concerned, they have no way of

her. Sweeney has effectively created a
situation where contact is impossible.

The police in Amsterdam then did a
thorough forensic search of the address,

that didn't...

provide any indication whatsoever that
any foul play had taken place at the

address. With no evidence of anything
untoward happening to Melissa and

any means of contacting the couple,
Dutch police were satisfied no crime had

taken place and their investigations
ended.

But crucially, Melissa was never
reported missing, allowing one of

dangerous criminals to slip through the
net and pursue his next victim.

Twelve months on from seemingly
disappearing from Amsterdam, John

resurfaced in London, where he met nurse
Delia Barmer.

Unaware of Sweeney's past convictions,
and time spent in an Austrian prison for

the violent attack on his girlfriend
Melissa Halstead, the pair began a

relationship, and Sweeney moved into
Delia's Kentish town flat.

John Sweeney developed some rather
alarming habits.

He used to keep a tarantula spider.

In a glass tank.

And he used to sit and watch the spider
for hours.

Before he came and moved in there, I
thought, oh, I've got somebody to talk

now and we're going to have such good
talks. But it never happened. He'd sit

look at his tarantula and drink pasta
tea and smoke joints.

Sweeney's controlling grip on Delia
never abated, even when his work often

him overseas.

He said he was going to Germany to...

He would phone me at eight on a Monday
night and he would tell me when he would

do it next. He'd phone me twice a week.
So he did tell me the next time and I

had to be there for the phone. He said,
you have to be there or I'll be angry if

you're not there to answer the phone.
And I thought that was because he was

worried about me, but it was just a
control thing.

This was the early 90s, before mobile
phones.

So what actually was happening was John
was perverting an innocent and actually

quite caring action into one of control.

Because if he arranged to talk to her at
8pm on a Monday evening, for example,

she had to be at home.

This meant that John knew exactly what
she was doing and again it's another way

of exerting his control from afar.

After two years of a psychologically
exhausting relationship,

Things came to a head after another
explosive row.

Well, I had a friend who lived in
Hackney, and I used to always go and

her, but she came to visit me at first
when he was there. She got to see what

was like, so she stopped visiting, and I
hadn't seen her for a long time, and I

was having a row with John.

One time I left the house without him,
and he followed me.

And the second time I left the house,
the next day, I said, oh, he'll be here

a minute following me. But I got as far
as the holly. I went in there for a few

minutes and I came out. He wasn't there.

So I thought, huh, he's not here. I'm
going to take the bus. I'm going to go

Martin. We had a nice day going around
pubs. I spent the night there.

I had to go to work on Tuesday, so I had
to leave.

So I went back, and he was waiting for
me, and he interrogated me.

And I said, well, I'm going to bed. And
then later he opened the door, and he

suddenly reached down to the bottom of
that low bed.

He had ropes there ready.

First he tied one ankle, then the other.

I sat up, and I said, what are you
doing?

And he grabbed my arms and he put me
back and tied my wrists to the bed.

I was tied to the bed all night long.

And he ranted and raved and he had my
kitchen knife.

He untied my ankles to have sex and I
lay there all night long.

I felt like I was in a padded cell with
a complete maniac.

Concerned, Delia's colleague attempted
to contact her, forcing Sweeney into

explaining her absence.

I was an agency nurse.

The office phoned, wondered why I wasn't
at work, and he said she had to go away

for an emergency, and they took that,
OK.

But then Rosie phoned the nurse I worked
with, and she said, if she's not here

by 12, I'm sending the police.

He said, what? What?

What? And he slammed the phone down and
he ran back and forth and said, She's

going to send the police. What am I
going to do?

And he kept running back and forth
saying that. I don't know.

I don't know.

Once again we can see how these
peripheral figures create a problem for

They pose a threat to the carefully
orchestrated situation he's created

he cannot control them and they can see
the situation as it truly is.

Panicked that Delia's colleagues might
raise the alarm if she failed to arrive

for her shift, Sweeney decided to allow
Delia to return to work.

Once he settled down a bit, he said,
look, I'll let you go. Just phone Rosie

tell her everything is all right and
you'll be back on the following Monday.

went with the phone to me and I had to
tell Rosie that and my voice was shaking

and she just...

went along with it, but she knew.

The terrifying ordeal lasted six days.

Escape was not an option.

I thought about how can I get out, but I
thought there's no way. If I try to

escape, something is going to happen.

I was afraid to think.

I thought even if I think, he will know
what I'm thinking.

No, I blocked my mind.

Tried to anyway because...

I just knew I was in danger.

During her relationship with Sweeney,
Delia describes escalating instances of

his behaviour.

I wasn't allowed out of the flat without
him.

Once we went out around the corner for a
cup of coffee the next day.

But he was there all the time.

He would even follow me to the bathroom
and watch me go to the toilet.

And she describes this as psychological
torture.

It's psychological torture because it's
pervasive.

It's constant.

There is no respite from it. We have to
remember that this happened within her

home. The very same space that Sweeney
helped to create now has become her

prison. I thought, well, I'll play along
with the game and I'll try and figure

out a way of getting away from here.

Living in fear, Delia decided not to
report the incident.

Well, I went back to work.

I showed the mark on the wrist and the
other nurses thought I should tell the

police. I said, it's no good, I can't
tell the police, it won't work. If I did

tell the police, he would find out and
I'd be in worse trouble. The sister on

the ward, she said, you're living on a
knife edge.

And she was right, and I knew it. I had
to find a way out, but I didn't know

what to do.

When she returned to work after being
held hostage by Sweeney...

Delia talks to her co -workers who are
outraged by what's happened and strongly

encourage her to report it to the
police.

Delia doesn't want to at this time.

Not because she's in love with John and
doesn't want to see him face the

consequences for what he's done, but
more because she doesn't believe

will happen and there's no value in
talking to the police about what's

to her.

But days after tying Delia to the bed,
Sweeney announced that he was once again

returning to Europe for work.

Relieved, Delia decided she had to act.

He said he was going to go to Germany to
work. He'd been gone since the Monday,

and it was the Thursday I got the lock
changed, but I had a feeling he was

lurking around.

It was a move that would enrage Sweeney.

I creeped into the flat, always afraid
that somehow he may still be there.

I opened the door to the flat, but I was
wary all the time. The door flung open,

he came out, he says, what did you do
that for?

He stuck his fingers down my throat and
he said, are you going to stop

screaming? And I'd already stopped. I
thought, this is it.

The knives are in here.

I found something in my mouth. I opened
my mouth. Huge clots of blood spilt out

to the floor.

He held up his fingers. He said, you've
hurt me. And I gurgled, it's not your

blood, it's my blood.

Once again, Delia found herself held
hostage in her own home.

he pulled me up and dragged me through
to the living room

and sat me on two large cushions near
the wall. So I was hostage again.

And then he says, I want sex now.

During the hostage situation, Sweeney
demands sex from Delia.

This is a powerful communication of the
control and dominance he has over Delia

because he puts the responsibility of
initiating the act onto her.

rather than actually taking it, which
would come under the umbrella of sexual

assault or rape.

This time, Delia's work colleagues were
so concerned for her welfare, they

contacted the authorities.

In this interesting turn of events, they
take the control and power that Delia

was unable to because her life was at
stake.

The work colleagues knew exactly what
was going on this time round and

the police.

The police came.

He wouldn't answer, but in the end, he's
seen.

Just go to the door and tell them
everything is all right, and as soon as

stopped talking, I'm leaving.

I stood up, walked to the door, felt his
presence behind me, opened the door,

and I rushed out of the door, out into
the street.

John Sweeney was arrested for various
offences, including assault.

When he was removed from the flat by
police, Delia pointed out his

and officers behind the bath panel found
what can only be described as a

killer's kit bag.

Contained within it was a tarpaulin
rubber sheet, lengths of rope, surgical

gloves, rolls of duct tape, all the
things you might need if you were

up after a crime scene.

John Sweeney was now safely behind bars,
awaiting trial for a terrifying assault

on Delia Barmer after holding her
hostage in her own flat.

But in a cruel twist of fate, he was
about to be relieved back onto the

As it got towards the end of December
1994, with Christmas approaching, there

was an amnesty.

Prisoners in custody for certain
offences could be released, which would

they could spend Christmas at home with
their families.

One such person who benefited from this
amnesty was John Sweeney.

Surely now, with his record, he would be
put behind bars for a long period.

Ludicrously, it would seem to normal
people, he was almost immediately let

Delos assured beforehand that he
wouldn't be getting bail, he would be

over Christmas.

Despite a litany of previous convictions
for extreme violence, John Sweeney was

released, but on strict bail conditions,
requiring him to go back to

Skelmersdale. I told the police what he
would do to me, what time he would do

it, when he would be there and how he
would do it. I was given no protection.

On remand and awaiting trial for holding
his girlfriend captive in her London

home, John Sweeney was unexpectedly
released from prison days before

in 1994.

As part of his bail conditions, he was
required to return to his hometown of

Skelmersdale. But Sweeney was not a man
who took kindly to orders.

Being someone who would not be told what
to do by the law or anyone, he made a

beeline straight for Delia with very
harmful intent.

On the 22nd of December 1994, a couple
of days after John Sweeney was released

from prison,

Delia was coming home from work on a
cold December night at about six o

As she climbed the few steps to her flat
with her bicycle, Sweeney emerged from

underneath the basement.

He says, come on in, I want to speak to
you. He brings out the axe.

First with the wooden handle of the axe,
he bashes me.

I put my arms out for protection with
the large wooden handle of the axe.

Bang.

I tried to kick him, hit him in the
right place, but I missed.

So with my broken, bleeding arms, I
pulled my bicycle on top of me to try

have some protection.

Then he stabbed me through this breast
into the lung.

And then he stabbed me through the
thigh.

Delia protected herself by placing a
bicycle on top of her, but she could

the clanging of the axe and the knife as
it hit the frame of her bicycle.

He had the axe over his head ready to
finish me off.

I put my hands over my face and shut my
eyes, ready to die.

Delia's desperate screams alerted the
attention of a neighbour.

He came out to see what all the
commotion was about.

armed with a baseball bat, and he could
see Sweeney attacking Delia.

I looked up, saw him with the axe still,
so I covered up again. I heard another

noise, and the neighbour had bashed him
in the back with a baseball bat, so he's

holding the axe, and... Which caused
Sweeney to flee the scene, leaving Delia

fighting for her life.

Following the sustained and brutal
attack... Delia had suffered near fatal

wounds as well as life -changing
injuries and was rushed to hospital.

I thought I wanted to die.

Once the finger was gone, when I saw
that go, I thought I've had enough.

My body had been damaged because I
always looked after it. I danced.

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I had a
decent enough body and I didn't want it

ruined. I used to look after myself and
I never had scars like that.

So I didn't want to live in anger and
pain.

Sweeney, now on the run, brazenly
breached a police order imposed on him

decade earlier and paid an unbidden
visit to the home of his former wife,

He stayed the night with Anne Bramley,
but stayed in his room, kept himself to

himself. However, he did tell his son.

that he'd done things that would make
your hair stand on end.

He just turned up on the doorstep. It
meant nothing to him. He had no qualms

all about imposing himself for one night
on a family that would probably be

absolutely in shock to see him.

Following the attack on Delia, there was
an active manhunt to track down John

Sweeney, who they knew was armed and
extremely dangerous.

They visited the family home in
Skelmersdale, but...

He'd already fled and he wasn't there.
After a while, the trail ran cold and

whereabouts of John Sweeney wasn't
known.

To what intents and purposes, John
Sweeney would have probably gone back to

Skirmishdale and kept his head low, but
in some respects, that's probably the

first place that the police would have
gone looking for him. So coming to

was probably the best thing that he
could have done.

Yet again, Sweeney went to ground and
had managed to evade capture.

While Sweeney was on the run, he did a
number of different jobs, working as a

workman on building sites.

He had no national insurance number.

He was paid in cash, so he could move
from job to job. Sweeney has a plan.

He goes underground, but at the same
time he hides in plain sight.

He's difficult to trace. We can see
parallels in Sweeney's behaviour when he

left Amsterdam.

But with Delia now recovered and able to
provide police with more information,

the investigation into Sweeney was to
unearth terrifying new revelations about

his past.

What she told them was she'd seen a
picture of a young woman in John

belongings.

And John Sweeney told her that he came
home one day, found her in bed with two

German men, so he shot all three of
them. When I was tied to the bed, When

was ranting and raving with the kitchen
knife, first he interrogated me about

things, and then he said, I suppose you
wonder what happened to Melissa.

She was in the apartment in Amsterdam.

Two Germans were there, and I killed
them all. I didn't know what to do with

bodies, so I sat with them for three
days. On the third day, I cut them up

threw them in the canal.

The purpose of Sweeney revealing this
information to Delia is strategic.

He's given her crucial information,
which does tip the balance.

However, he's also communicating to her
what will happen if you cross me. And if

you cross me, you will die.

John Sweeney has never been convicted or
charged in connection with the

disappearance of the two German men.

Following Delia's shocking testimony,
detectives from the Metropolitan Police

immediately alerted their Dutch
counterparts.

To their disbelief, police in the
Netherlands confirmed that they did have

record of a body discovered in a
Rotterdam canal in 1990.

And alarmingly, they also revealed that
a second body was discovered in near

identical circumstances in Amsterdam two
years later.

Detectives now asked if this could be
the remains of the still -missing

Halstead, last seen in Amsterdam in
1990.

But yet, who was the second person?
Could these two deaths also be the work

the same killer?

In 1992, another dismembered female body
in a suitcase is found in a canal.

The body was completely dismembered in
several parts and the hands haven't been

fully removed from the body. The
fingertips were removed.

On getting the telex from the
Metropolitan Police, the Amsterdam

immediately thought that the 1992
body...

in Amsterdam of the dismembered female
could well be that of Melissa.

With the discovery of the dismembered
body in Amsterdam appearing to confirm

what Delia had told police Dutch
authorities contacted Melissa's family

to request a familial DNA sample
allowing them to determine whether the

matched that of the dismembered body.

The DNA was sent from America to the
Netherlands.

but unfortunately the samples were
negative, so the Amsterdam police

they may have solved the riddle of the
dismembered female body from 1992, but

unfortunately that wasn't the case.

The result was a bitter setback for the
family of Melissa Halstead, and her

disappearance remained a mystery.

Just over six years after John Sweeney's
brutal attack on Delia Barmer, And in a

macabre reminder of events in Holland a
decade earlier, three young boys fishing

on London's Regent's Canal made a
harrowing discovery.

They come across some holdalls within
the canal and obviously once police

are called to the scene, it's
established that they actually contain

of an unidentified female.

Apart from the one holdall that the boys
have fished onto the side, they find

five others.

All six holdalls contain a total of ten
body parts.

The body parts have been weighed down in
the holdalls with various bricks,

ceramic tiles and other various
wrappings.

The holdalls and their content are taken
to the local mortuary where they're

examined and they're found to be the
various body parts of a

young female.

The head, the hands and the feet are all
missing.

Metropolitan Police immediately launched
a murder inquiry and a DNA sample was

checked against the National DNA
Database.

Shortly after, the body was formally
identified as 31 -year -old Liverpudlian

woman Paula Fields.

Paula Fields was... A lovely woman. She
was brought up in Merseyside and came to

London, as so many people do from the
north and other parts of the country,

believing this was where the future lay
and with money and the great

excitement that London was to produce.

Unfortunately, she hit a spiral of drugs
and prostitution and despite three

children, she found herself in despair.

When Paula went missing, the police
looked into her background and lifestyle

found that among her friends was a man
called Joe Scouse.

If we think about the profile of Paula
Fields, we can see she's vulnerable and

although she has a large network of
friends, they are in Liverpool when

London. This means she's disconnected
and isolated.

Whilst in London, Paula met a man called
Joe, also from Merseyside.

They got on well, both being from the
same area.

They clearly liked each other's company.

However, there were times when Jo would
lose patience with Paula.

He talked about having lost his mobile
phone and money. He would challenge

about it, but she would deny it.

There was another occasion when Paula
would buy drugs from a dealer in the

street, and rather than pay the dealer,
she would say that Jo would pay, which

upset him greatly.

Owing to her sometimes chaotic
lifestyle, It was not unusual for Paula

missing from time to time.

But her family grew increasingly
concerned when she failed to make

them over Christmas in 2000.

Police now wondered if Paula's body had
been in the canal longer than they had

first realised.

And tracking down Joe Scouse became
their number one priority.

Paula's associates and friends revealed
that Joe Scouse was living at a house in

Digby Crescent, Finsbury Park.

The initial inquiries weren't able to
identify who this person called Joe

was. At Digby Crescent, there was a male
who had also been spoken to, and that

individual was somebody called Anthony
Sweeney.

Anthony Sweeney was placed under
observation by undercover officers, as

couldn't be sure that he wasn't Joe
Scouse.

Whilst under observation, he met with
another man.

officers were surprised to learn that
this other man was in fact Anthony's

brother, John.

Having run John Sweeney's details
through the national computer, they were

amazed to find that John Sweeney was in
fact wanted for the attack on Delia

Balmer in 1994 and had been on the run
for over five years.

I was reading the Camden Journal and I
read about this body, this cut -up body

in the canal, and I think they said her
name. I said... Hmm, that sounds like

something John would do.

The hunt for Paula Field's killer was
almost over, and six years on from the

brutal attack on Delia Barmer,
detectives were about to discover the

of John Sweeney's violent and murderous
past.

While Sweeney was on the run, he used a
number of aliases.

He did a number of different jobs, one
of which happened to be at a building

site very close to the Old Bailey.

Investigators waited for an opportune
moment to pounce, seizing 45 -year -old

John Sweeney when he made an appointment
at a mobile phone shop.

Once Sweeney had been arrested, police
went to search his property.

They found a selection of guns,
ammunition, a machete, a garrotte, a

wig. It seemed like the everyday arsenal
of weaponry of a very violent and

dangerous man.

In 2001, John Sweeney was charged with
the attempted murder of Delia Barmer,

along with firearms offences in relation
to the weapons found at his bedsit.

He was also arrested on suspicion of the
murder of Paula Fields.

He admitted that he knew Paula and
admitted that on occasions their

had been quite violent. There was some
evidence in the bricks that had been

to weigh down the body.

parts in the holdalls.

The soil samples that were contained on
the bricks were compared to the garden

in Digby Crescent and there was some
evidence that that soil could have come

from the garden which would have
provided a physical link between Sweeney

Paula. The case against John Sweeney was
significantly difficult.

In a lot of murder investigations you
have lots of evidence at your disposal.

that you can use to confirm whether
someone's been involved in the offence

not. But in this case, we didn't have a
crime scene.

We didn't know where she was killed and
we didn't know how she was killed.

We didn't have any CCTV evidence,
therefore, to link to that murder.

We didn't have any other opportunities
in terms of significant witnesses who

would have witnessed the assault or the
aftermath.

Not satisfied that police had done
enough to build the case against

Crown Prosecution Service made the
decision not to charge him with the

Paula Fields.

Sadly, the investigation into Paula's
death stalled.

There were no further lines of inquiry
and the case was closed.

John Sweeney was found guilty of the
attempted murder of Delia Barmer and

a life sentence with a minimum tariff of
just nine years.

meaning he would be eligible for parole
in April 2011.

All they gave him was nine years and one
month after all the hell I had

been through.

And I'm the one who's being punished.
I've got this pain, scars, everything

the rest of my life.

As police began piecing together who
exactly John Sweeney was, they searched

number of properties in London and
Liverpool.

as well as his jail cell at Gartry
Prison in Leicestershire.

What they found offered an alarming
insight into the depraved mind of

that included specific references to
Melissa Halstead, who had been missing

since 1990.

They found a most extraordinary array of
artwork and poetry of the most dark and

sinister nature.

There was pictures of Sweeney, self
-portraits labelled Scalp Hunter,

as a devil with a blood -soaked axe.

Sweeney's artwork represents a number of
things.

On one hand, it's a visual
representation of his internal world,

darkest thoughts. There's also something
quite provocative about his artwork

because it's imbued with communications
and messages which give us an indication

of some of the things that he's done.

drawings and sketches and poems were
specifically about both Delia and

And they were very enlightening to
police because when you looked at them

closely, some of them also contained
what appeared to be messages.

For example, one picture had correction
fluid on it, but then when you looked

underneath it, it had Melissa, born
1956, and then died, and a

blank.

How did Sweeney know she'd died? Only
the killer would know that.

John Sweeney's painting of the romantic
weekend in Vienna is clearly a reference

to himself and Melissa.

It shows extreme violence and it shows
the actual relationship.

And in fact, the portrayals, you know,
silhouetted, do look like Sweeney and

Melissa at that time.

But the most significant piece of
evidence they found was a scrap of paper

appeared to have a poem written on it.

His poetry included callous rhymes.

He wrote about Melissa being fed to the
fishes, chopped into bits.

Amsterdam was the pits.

Most sinister and childlike rhyming with
a macabre touch to it.

They're not lyrically brilliant.
However, they mention specific cities

locations so that you could piece
together the real -world movements of

John Sweeney and Melissa.

Despite finding such taunting clues
within Sweeney's disturbing artwork,

Melissa's case fell outside the
Metropolitan Police's jurisdiction and

detectives were unable to make any
further inquiries into her

In 2008, and with Sweeney's prison term
nearing its end, the Metropolitan Police

received an unexpected phone call.

In 2008, I was at my desk and the phone
rang.

When I answered, it was a detective from
Holland and he told me that he was part

of a newly formed cold case
investigation team in Rotterdam. He also

tell me that due to a particular case
they'd been given, which was...

a dismembered female body found in a
canal in Rotterdam in 1990.

They'd managed to find a blood sample
that had been taken from that post

of that body.

When they ran a search through their
newly formed missing person databases,

blood sample came back as belonging to
Melissa Halstead.

That was a significant turning point in
their missing person.

and significant for us in the
Metropolitan Police in that we were able

confirm that there was a link between
Melissa Halstead and the murder of

Paula Fields, which had been unsolved
some years earlier.

And that link was John Sweeney. Sweeney
was in a relationship with those women

at the time that they went missing.

So for us, if we could therefore move
the investigation further forward from

that point onward, we would have a
better chance if we were able to pull

cases together and therefore use the
similar facts evidence in one case to

support the evidence in another case.

So the common denominator, the common
factor between all the fields and

health did was John Sweeney.

Incredibly, The truth about Melissa's
fate had been sitting on a police DNA

database for almost 20 years.

It had only been tested against the body
pulled from the Amsterdam waters

because there had been nothing to link
her to Rotterdam at the time of her

disappearance.

On hearing that Melissa's remains had
finally been identified, we were quite

euphoric in the thought that we could
use each case to bolster the other.

bearing in mind we had very little
physical evidence to go on to prove that

Sweeney murdered either of these women.

But, of course, we had a problem because
we had one victim in London, which was

within our jurisdiction, and we had a
second victim in Rotterdam in the

Netherlands, which clearly wasn't.

With Sweeney still serving his sentence
in a landmark international murder

investigation... British and Dutch
police joined forces to build the case

against him before his potential
release.

There had been occasions when different
police forces had worked in

people trafficking, drugs and firearms
offences. It was the first time that we

had a UK force investigating a murder
investigation with an outside agency.

With Sweeney's release date fast
approaching, time was running out for

and they faced a race to gather evidence
against him before he was once again

free to roam the streets.

The clock was ticking, and it meant that
we had to therefore do an awful lot of

things very quickly. But that
investigation was fairly complex,

thing we wanted him to do is to be
released in relation to him serving his

sentence for the attempted murder of
Dilib Amar, and he's therefore free to

possibly attack.

another female, then you can just see
the repercussions and what would have

in the media.

It was clear from the outset that there
were going to be lots of challenges

ahead. For example, we don't speak
Dutch.

The nature of the evidence in the Dutch
inquiry in relation to Melissa House

did.

It needed to be translated into English
and there was a huge amount of material.

And also it had to be presented in such
a way that it would be

acceptable in a UK court.

The Dutch authorities had to give us
complete ownership of it. So in other

words, they had to hand over their
investigation, which created its own

problems.

They would say, well, what happens if
you don't do a good job in investigating

our case and we have lost the
opportunity?

But for Delia Barmer... The thought of
reliving the trauma Sweeney inflicted on

her by assisting the police with their
inquiries was too much.

They couldn't get anywhere with me and
so they took me to a forensic

psychologist and he spoke to me and
asked questions for an hour and I showed

my anger and after the hour he went and
spoke to them and I got out of

it because it would have traumatised me
again.

Delia had suffered an incredible amount
of trauma to date. She has suffered

violence at the hands of Sweeney.

And now the police, who hadn't actually
listened to her previously, were wanting

her support.

I think it was just too much for her and
she had to put herself first when no

one else would.

John Sweeney's life of extreme violence
and coercive control had spanned more

than three decades.

Manipulating and controlling partners,
with complete disregard for them and the

law. Now more than 16 years on from the
brutal attempted murder of Delia Barmer,

he faced one more trial, charged with
two counts of murder and one of

the course of justice, by disposing of
Paula Field's body in the Regent's

His trial at the Old Bailey began in
March 2011, just a few weeks before he

eligible for parole.

He pleaded not guilty.

We're reasonably confident. You can
never be 100 % sure that your case is

absolutely watertight and that you will
get a conviction.

What were the chances of somebody having
a girlfriend whose phone dismembered in

a canal?

Once, you would say that person is
pretty unfortunate.

For a second time, you would say, what
are the chances of that happening to

somebody on two occasions?

However, we were acutely aware that we
had no physical forensic evidence or any

significant forensic evidence with which
to link John Sweeney to both killings

of Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead.

Despite his denial, ultimately it was
Sweeney's own artwork that proved

In the cold light of a courtroom, John
Sweeney's artwork began to look very

different. Clearly, it correlated very
well.

with many of the actual activities
around the killings and many of the kind

products of those killings, i .e. the
dismembered bodies themselves.

John Sweeney has perhaps revealed too
much in his little ramblings and his

little jokes to himself in his drawings.

From the moment the jury saw the
artwork, they knew that whatever he said

defence, that they were sitting opposite
a seriously, seriously, dangerous man.

Ultimately, there's no doubt at all that
in the context of the case, they did

prove to be his downfall. And although
he'd never admitted, I'm sure that he

regrets bitterly ever drawing them.

There's something about Sweeney where he
sees himself as invincible.

He sees himself as being able to do
whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

And I think his artwork kind of
illustrates that because it's about his

world, it's mixed with reality.

You just don't know the truth, but you
can't quite rule it out.

After a trial lasting five weeks, John
Sweeney was found guilty of all charges

and ordered to serve a whole life
tariff, meaning he will spend the rest

life in prison with no chance of parole.

John Sweeney had always convinced
himself throughout that he would never

convicted. of this heinous crime however
he did not contemplate the

determination and the resolve of the
joint investigation team john sweeney

received a whole life tariff and not
that many people do he was so brutal and

so ungiving and consistently so
throughout his life it's never right to

um you're happy when a person is
convicted i think the word is satisfied

that the culmination of all our hard
work and the hard work of our Dutch

colleagues had all been supported by the
jury in reaching that verdict.

But I think most of all I was satisfied
for the friends and the family of both

Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields.

We know she is never coming back and we
never said goodbye.

We hope to God that John Sweeney will
never be released.

It must be very upsetting and
distressing for both families to know

body parts are missing.

and will probably never be found.

But I think this really shows the
control and the contempt that Sweeney

shown over his victims.

Whilst John Sweeney is now behind bars,
some detectives believe he is

responsible for more as yet unsolved
crimes, and that he may have killed

although as yet there is no evidence to
support this.

And as John Sweeney contemplates a life
behind bars, I would like to assure him

that this investigation will continue.

as we seek to identify and trace other
possible victims within the UK, Holland

and across Europe.

It could be wider than Mark.

I take the view that he's probably done
others, but I think he'll take that to

his grave.

Over the years, he must have come into
contact with many other women at some

stage. The police have already named
three possible women in London, a

Brazilian, a Colombian and...

the British trainee nurse, who they all
think may have been linked to Sweeney.

As far as I'm concerned, there really is
no evidence to suggest that he's killed

anymore.

But I wouldn't rule it out.

I think for Sweeney, it's about having
the power to know that he's still

in people's minds. We don't know.

He's keeping himself alive on the
outside.

And I think that, again, is about his
power and need to control and dominate.

And so through the not knowing...

He exerted power.

Three decades on from Sweeney's brutal
attack on her doorstep, Delia Barmer

still lives with the trauma of having
suffered at the hands of a serial

And John Sweeney's threatening behaviour
has continued, despite being behind

bars.

From what I gather, he's not being
punished in prison. He draws pictures

other...

Prisoners. I'm on my back. I'm a
cockroach. My face is showing. That's an

still. He's still managing to insult me.

Even in prison, he's still insulting me.

The chilling reality of how close Delia
Barmer came to dying at the hands of

John Sweeney lives with her.

The impact of surviving, the level of
violence Sweeney inflicts upon Delia is

going to be intense.

Her sense of the world is going to be
changed.

Her trust in others is going to be
compromised.

And her sense of security in not only
herself but others is going to be

forever as well.

When he had the ropes tied ready in the
bed, that was ready to tie me down with.

It was all there.

The green canvas bag with all the things
ready to chop me up.

He'd done it to Melissa and Paula
Fields. He did the same. He would have

to me. That was the idea.

He's shown no remorse or sympathy for
his victims.

And I think, without doubt, he's
probably one of the most cruel

ever had the misfortune to come across.

In the last 25 years, I struggle to
think of a more dangerous man that has

come before a court in this country.

There's no such thing as justice. I'm
the one in pain.

I'm the one with the scars.

There's no such thing as closure.

He's got his own way. I'm the one who's
being punished. I've got the life

sentence. And he's making sure of that
still.

If you or someone you know has been
affected by any of the issues raised in

tonight's program, please go to channel5
.com slash helplines for information

and support.

Next tonight, more true crime with My
Boyfriend Made Me Do It.