Woman reveals how she lived with a serial killer for three years and knew she was next to die after

A WOMAN has told how she had a three-year romance with a serial killer before being left for dead in a pool of blood when he turned on her. In 1994 Delia Balmer, now 67, was attacked with an axe and a rusty knife in a brutal attack by monster John Sweeney who had

A WOMAN has told how she had a three-year romance with a serial killer before being left for dead in a pool of blood when he turned on her.

In 1994 Delia Balmer, now 67, was attacked with an axe and a rusty knife in a brutal attack by monster John Sweeney – who had already murdered a former girlfriend and dumped her butchered body in a canal.

Before the vicious attack, Delia had already endured horrific violence at his hands, including a week-long ordeal when Sweeney tied her to a bed in her Camden home as he repeatedly raped her and threatened to cut out her tongue with a kitchen knife if she screamed.

During her torture, he confessed to murdering his American model ex-girlfriend Melissa Halstead, 33, in Holland.

Her body was found in a Rotterdam canal in 1990 but Sweeney wasn’t found guilty of the crime until 2011.

After going on the run following the 1994 attack on Delia, he brutally murdered another girlfriend - Paula Fields - and chopped up her body.

And three other women, known to have dated him, have never been found by police.

Despite surviving her attack, Delia doesn’t count it as a lucky escape.

She told the Mirror: “As far as I’m concerned, I have died.

“This is not me. This is something else. John Sweeney killed Delia on the concrete steps.”

In 2002, Sweeney was given four life sentences for the attempted murder of Delia, who has now told her story in a book called Living With A Serial Killer.

The retired nurse was left with horrific injuries after the 1994 attack when Sweeney – who had been released from police bail hours before – punctured her lung, hit her on the head with his axe, broke both her arms and stabbed her in the breast and thigh and cut off a finger.

She has been left covered in scars and in constant pain around her chest and back.

Delia had been in a relationship with the killer for three years when she made a chilling discovery under their bed – a green canvas bag filled with masking tape, Marigold gloves, surgical gloves, a large plastic ground sheet, rope, and a saw.

She realised it was “a body disposal kit meant for me”.

Delia went to the police and Sweeney was arrested - but released on bail.

She said: “I thought: ‘He will do something. He will cut me to bits. Just like he had Melissa.’

“The moment I discovered he was out, I was on edge. I knew he would be coming for me.”

Sweeney attacked her on her own doorstep, and she was convinced she would die.

She said:  “I saw this finger fly through the air, and I thought: ‘That’s it. I don’t want to live anymore. I don’t want to live in this anger and pain’. So I wasn’t happy when I woke up in an intensive care unit.”

Sweeney went on the run for six years, and slaughtered mum-of-three Paula Fields, 31, before dumping her dismembered body in London’s Regent’s Canal.

Police then discovered more than 300 violent and pornographic paintings and poems at his squat, one entitled “The Scalp Hunter”, which showed women being mutilated with axes.

Delia had first met the carpenter, from Skelmersdale near Liverpool, when she was 41 in a pub in 1991.

He said he worked on building sites in Germany, and Australian Delia felt they shared a passion for travel.

But not long after they started dating, the abuse began, starting with constant phone calls and controlling behaviour, moving to throttling, death threats and rape.

She finally had the courage to report him after the 1994 ordeal, only to nearly die at his hands weeks later.

But during the six years he was on the run, she says she wasn’t frightened at the prospect of him coming back to finish her off.

She said: “After the attack it was too late, I didn’t care and I wanted to die anyway. I didn’t want to live in this body that’s all messed up.

"I felt like that for the whole six years, and I still sort of feel like that.

“He wanted me to die in pain, and he’s got his wish. I am going to die in pain, mentally and physically.”

In 2011, Sweeney was convicted at the Old Bailey of the brutal murders of Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead and given a whole-life sentence.

Living With A Serial Killer by Delia Balmer, is published by Ebury Press and priced £6.99

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