'Killer cut up lovers' bodies and dumped them in canals'

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12 April 2012

A "demonic" killer with a hatred of women dumped the dismembered bodies of two former girlfriends in canals in London and Rotterdam, the Old Bailey heard today.

John Sweeney, 54, butchered 33-year-old former model Melissa Halstead in 1990 and 31-year-old mother-of-two Paula Fields in 2001, the court heard.

He has been brought to trial following a landmark joint Anglo-Dutch investigation, said Brian Altman QC, prosecuting. Jurors heard how the investigation began with a gruesome discovery by boys out fishing in Regent's Canal on Monday February 19, 2001.

Mr Altman said: "In the water they saw some bags. Curious to see what was within them they pulled one of the bags on the towpath as one of the boys turned the bag over, some bricks fell out together with something wrapped in a number of bin liners.

"To their horror they had discovered just some of the dismembered remains of Paula Fields."

Ms Fields had last been seen alive in December 2000 and was reported missing the following month.

"That grim discovery together with the finding of more of her dismembered and mutilated remains wrapped and bagged up like so much rubbish for disposal was to lead to a massive investigation," said Mr Altman.

The murder of Ms Fields was later linked to the case of Melissa Halstead, whose dismembered body was found on May 3, 1990.

Ms Halstead, an American former model, was working in Amsterdam as a freelance photographer and beautician. Dutch police found her remains, wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed in a duffel bag in the Westersingel canal in Rotterdam. Her body was only identified in 2008 following DNA tests.

Melissa's head and hands were missing and Paula's head, hands and feet have also never been recovered.

Both women had been in a relationship with Sweeney at the time they went missing, the court heard.

Jurors heard Sweeney had been convicted of assaulting Ms Halstead in the UK and Austria and his relationship with Ms Fields was "volatile".

The court heard police found "lurid and demonic" sketches and paintings by Sweeney as well as pages of poems. One of them was titled "Scalphunter".

Sweeney, of no fixed address but from the Kentish Town area, denies murder and perverting the course of justice by disposing of the body of Paula Fields.

The trial continues.

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