John Sweeney, the double murderer known as the canal killer, has died in prison. He was 69 and was serving a whole-life sentence for the murders of two former partners.
Convictions and victims
Sweeney was sentenced at the Old Bailey in 2011 for murdering Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead. The victims' bodies were found ten years apart in England and the Netherlands. Detectives believed he may have killed other former girlfriends who had disappeared without trace.
Melissa Halstead, 33, a former model originally from the US, was murdered in 1990. Her dismembered remains were dumped in a canal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. DNA identification came 18 years later, although her head and hands have never been found.
The remains of Paula Fields, 31, were discovered in six holdalls drifting in the Regent's Canal in Camden, north London, in February 2001. Her head, hands and feet have never been recovered.
Death in custody
Sweeney is believed to have died at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on August 14. According to The Times, cancer was the cause of death.
A Prison Service spokesman said: "These were horrific crimes and our thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones."
"As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating, and it would be inappropriate to comment further before the conclusion of its findings."
Other offences and artwork
Beyond the two killings, Sweeney also attacked a girlfriend, nurse Delia Balmer, with an axe. She survived only because a neighbour intervened.
The carpenter displayed his violent tendencies through disturbing artwork and poetry found at his home. One image, featuring a blood-stained axe, bore the self-styled moniker the Scalp Hunter.
Ms Balmer wrote a memoir about her ordeal living with Sweeney, which ITV adapted into a television miniseries titled Until I Kill You in 2024.
