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you → read → more
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us → let → crimedesk@dailymail.co.uk
Serial killer John Sweeney disgusted seasoned detectives with the gruesome details of his horrific crimes, but even they were shocked at the arrogance of his behaviour in court as he stood accused of murdering two former girlfriends.
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he → disgust → girlfriends
Sweeney, who called himself the Scalp Hunter, butchered Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields before dumping them into canals in London and the Netherlands.
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who → call → London
But in the dock at the Old Bailey in 2011, the killer, believed to have slaughtered even more women during a 'demonic' orgy of violence spanning decades, refused to listen to the damning evidence against him.
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killer → believe → him
In an act of staggering arrogance, he stuck earplugs in to block out any references to his crimes and then refused to leave his cell for sentencing after being found guilty.
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he → stick → sentencing
He was given a whole life tariff for his evil and died behind bars from cancer aged 69 at HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire, last week.
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He → give → Whitemoor
But Sweeney saved a final act of wickedness for his dying breath, taking the secrets of where he buried the remains of victims to the grave.
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he → save → grave
The monster's cowardice and arrogance was of little surprise to retired Detective Chief Inspector Howard Groves, who helped catch the killer and bring him to justice.
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who → retire → justice
He told The Crime Desk: 'I always wondered and hoped whether he would have it within him to say, "This is what happened, this is where their remains are, or what I did with them".
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I → tell → them
I feel for the families who will never have closure – that would always be something that they can't change.
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they → feel → that
John Sweeney was jailed for life in 2011 after murdering former girlfriends Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields and throwing their mutilated bodies into canals in England and Holland
Halstead was an American-born model, originally from Ohio, whose torso was discovered in a Rotterdam canal on May 3, 1990
Sweeney went on to kill 31-year-old mother Fields, whose body was found inside six holdalls floating in the Regent's Canal, London, in 2001
'
uncertain
body → jail → 2001
I suppose he's somebody who feels that they have the upper hand, "I will always take this secret with me to my grave".
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I → suppose → grave
There are people who are like that.
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who → be → that
There's no humanity in them, even at a certain point in life where they may reflect on what they did and do the right thing.
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they → be → thing
'I hoped - although I always kind of felt this would be the final outcome - that he would never divulge.
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he → hop → ?
And it's because he now knows that everybody wanted him to say what happened and where the remains are, but he has to have the final say.
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he → know → say
He has to have that power, because it is a power trip by not disclosing to us.
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it → have → us
Sweeney dismembered Ms Halstead, 33, an American photographer and former model.
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Sweeney → dismember → Halstead
She was found in a bag in a canal in Rotterdam in May 1990.
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She → find → May
Her remains were not identified for 18 years.
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remains → identify → years
And schoolboy anglers discovered Ms Fields, 31, in ten pieces and floating inside six holdalls in Regent's Canal, Camden, north London, nearly 11 years later in February 2001.
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anglers → discover → February
Officers using advances in DNA linked Sweeney to the crimes when convicting him of an axe attack on ex-girlfriend Delia Balmer, a nurse, who was saved by a neighbour who chased him off with a baseball bat in Kentish Town.
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who → use → Town
The carpenter - born in Kirkdale, Liverpool - boasted of his violence in hundreds of blood-curdling paintings and poems found at his bedsit, alongside an arsenal of weapons including two sawn-off shotguns and a pistol.
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carpenter → bear → shotguns
Pictures depicted women with hands and feet chopped off, references to '666' and Sweeney as Satan.
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Pictures → depict → Satan
A twisted poem he penned read: 'Poor old Melissa.
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he → pen → ?
Detectives questioned Sweeney over the disappearance of three other former girlfriends but he was never charged with any further killings.
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he → question → killings
Dutch police also investigated claims that Sweeney killed two German men.
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Sweeney → investigate → men
Police suspect he may have slaughtered others in the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe where he told them he had '30 to 40' relationships.
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he → suspect → relationships
Mr Groves, who retired in 2014 having served 30 years in the Met, recalls the intense hatred Sweeney had towards him in court.
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Sweeney → retire → court
'I know that he despised me because of the investigation,' he said.
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he → know → investigation
Halstead's body was thrown into the Westersingel canal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands
A drawing by Sweeney which the prosecution said is a portrait of him and Melissa Halstead
'He didn't like me because my name was mentioned to him at some point and he made a flippant remark.
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he → throw → remark
But that didn't surprise me and I didn't expect anything else.
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I → surprise → anything
So, I wasn't going to lose any sleep over that.
'
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I → go → that
He sat there with earplugs in his ears for the majority of the trial.
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He → sit → trial
I think that was just the contempt that he had for the officers, family members and jury.
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he → think → officers
He was not really taking much stock of what was being said.
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what → take → stock
My view is, if you're not guilty, because that's the reason why you go to court and through the whole thing of the defence and prosecution, and you stick plugs in your ears, you're basically saying, I don't want to hear any of this.
'
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I → go → this
Maybe he knew what the outcome was, so that's just his way of distancing himself from everything that was happening around him.
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that → know → him
Sweeney's conviction was the first time British police had teamed up with detectives from another country to investigate a series of murders, although they previously cooperated on organised crime.
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they → team → crime
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
