“My serial killer ex tried to axe me to death”
Delia Balmer tells Closer how she’ll never recover after falling into the clutches of twisted murderer John Sweeney, who left her for dead in a bloodbath
❛HE WAS A PSYCHOPATH – I LIVED IN TERROR FOR YEARS❜
When Delia Balmer met carpenter John Sweeney in a London pub, she thought she’d found her soulmate.
But she gradually realised that he wasn’t all he seemed and, over the course of three years, Sweeney became increasingly controlling, until he attacked her, kept her captive for a week and boasted of “chopping up” an ex-girlfriend.
Delia spent a year trying to leave him, but in December 1994 Sweeney brutally attacked Delia on her doorstep with an axe.
She was saved by a neighbour but suffered horrific injuries, including a punctured lung and a severed finger.
Delia, who speaks frequently about her ordeal, recalls, “I was 41 when I met John, he seemed exciting and I thought we had a lot in common. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. He was a psychopath and I lived in terror. Even now, I occasionally have nightmares and suffer terribly from anxiety.”
VIOLENT
Sweeney, originally from Liverpool, went on the run for six years until he was captured and sentenced to life for Delia’s attempted murder. While in prison, he was later charged with the murders of two other girlfriends and is serving a whole life sentence.
Former nurse Delia first met Sweeney, then 35, in 1991, and says there was an instant spark.
She says, “I’d been to lots of different countries, so when John said he often travelled for work, I thought we’d have a lot in common. I was alone and he was living in a squat with six other men, so after just a few months I invited him to live with me in my flat in Camden, London. At first, he was very helpful – building me furniture and bringing me flowers.”
But towards the end of their first year together, Sweeney began to show his violent side; deliberately damaging her belongings and, more disturbingly, showing Delia his drawings of women being murdered.
Delia says, “I knew then that he wasn’t normal, but I had no idea of what was to come. I had second thoughts about our relationship, but he wouldn’t listen whenever I asked him to leave.”
POSSESSIVE
Over the next two years, Delia says Sweeney’s behaviour became increasingly possessive, and she lost touch with many of her friends, who felt uncomfortable around him. In May 1994, Delia escaped to spend a day with a friend. But when she returned, jealous Sweeney attacked her and tied her to their bed, while he wielded a 12-inch knife in one hand and a gun in the other.
Delia says, “I was splayed out with my hands and ankles tied to the bed, I was terrified. He told me, “Don’t scream or I’ll cut your tongue out,” while he questioned me about an old photo he’d found of me with a male friend.
“It was then that he began screaming about his ex-girlfriend and two German men who he found in their flat. He shouted, ‘I cut up their bodies and threw them in the canal.’”
Delia says she had no doubt he was telling the truth, but stayed quiet so as not to antagonise him more. Sweeney then gave her sips of beer and untied her ankles so he could have sex with her.
She says, “I had no choice but to follow his orders. When my employer phoned in the morning, he untied my wrists and got me to phone back and say I had wouldn’t be in because of an emergency.”
After threatening to kill Delia, Sweeney eventually let her return to work. While she shared what had happened with a few colleagues, she didn’t go to the police because she knew they wouldn’t help.
She says, “I was scared they’d just put a restraining order on him and that he’d come after me anyway. I was trapped and lived in a constant state of terror.”
But after Delia visted a GP for a check-up, she was referred to an organisation that called the police against her wishes.
She says, “I told the police
everything, but they said there wasn’t enough evidence. It felt like they didn’t believe me.”
In November 1994, Sweeney left. But he was arrested days later after he forced entry into Delia’s home and one of her friends called the police. He was released on bail and terrifyingly attacked Delia with an axe just three days before Christmas.
She says, “As I climbed the steps to my door after work, John appeared and said, ‘I bet you didn’t expect to see me,’ before he picked up an axe and hit me in the side of the head with the handle.
“I collapsed on to the step as he hit me. I resisted screaming as I knew it would only make him worse.”
Sweeney continued to attack Delia with a knife and punctured her lung, before chopping off her little finger with the axe.
She says, “I prepared myself for death. I thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough.’”
Eventually, a neighbour heard the commotion and intervened, before Sweeney ran away. Delia’s injuries were so severe that she was kept in intensive care for several days and spent a month in hospital.
She says, “John was on the run and I no longer cared whether he found me; as far as I was concerned my life was over anyway – I didn’t want to live with the scars on my chest and arms. I was angry at him, but I was even more angry at the police for not believing me and not protecting me.”
Police finally caught Sweeney in 2001. He was convicted of attempted murder and Delia had to give evidence in court.
DISMEMBERED
Sweeney, who dubbed himself the “scalp hunter,” was sentenced to life with a minimum term of nine years and one month in 2002. In 2011, he was also sentenced for the murders of two others – his former girlfriend, American model Melissa Halstead, 33, and Paula Fields, 31, whom he had met while on the run.
Melissa’s headless body had been found in a Rotterdam canal in 1990, but was unable to be identified as police had no DNA evidence. Paula’s dismembered remains were found in London’s Regent’s Canal in 2001, a month before Sweeney was captured – but, again, police were unable to charge him, despite his association with her, due to a lack of DNA evidence.
But the crimes were linked in 2008 after extensive DNA testing, and Sweeney was finally charged. In 2011, he was sentenced to life for the murders, and police believe he may be linked to the disappearance of three other women.
Delia says, “I lost everything. I shared my life with a serial killer and still suffer. I find it hard to trust people. It makes me sick that he’s comfortable in prison and I pay taxes towards his upkeep.”
She adds, “My only release is to travel; I go away somewhere warm every winter and wish my life was like it was before.”