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Joanna Dennehy was a 'bloodthirsty murderer who killed for fun' Joanna Dennehy: The girl from a loving home who turned into a serial killer
(about 5 hours later)
Joanna Dennehy was a bloodthirsty murderer who killed for fun, the trial of her two accomplices repeatedly heard. For a woman who professed to kill for fun, the business of murder for Joanna Dennehy was an intensely serious act. As she lifted the knife like Norman Bates in Psycho and plunged it into her final victim, she showed little emotion and appeared not to enjoy herself. “Oh, look, you’re bleeding,” she told John Rogers, who nearly died from his wounds. “I’d better do some more.”
But because the 31-year-old admitted her crimes and did not give evidence, little is known about what drove her to such violent extremes. Dennehy, 31, is unique in the roll call of British multiple killers. She does not fit the Myra Hindley or Rose West model of accomplice to a more dominant partner. She is not a classic serial killer who disengaged after a kill to re-enter normal life, before murdering again. And she was not doing it for money.
The mother of two, who had severed contact with her children, told anyone who would listen that she had recently served a jail term for murdering her father after years of abuse, witnesses told Cambridge Crown Court. But in killing three men and seriously wounding two others over 14 days of carnage, her behaviour is more like a slow-burning spree killer with each death triggering the next. Afterwards, she celebrated by pointing out a body in a wheelie-bin like a trophy. After killing her third victim, she phoned up a friend to sing the Britney Spears song “Oops... I Did It Again”.
This was a lie. Her security guard father Kevin is alive and well. “She didn’t realise how bizarre that behaviour was,” said Professor David Wilson, an expert on serial killers. “The dividing line between fantasy and reality had become utterly blurred.”
In a series of facts read to jurors, it was revealed that neither he nor her mother Kathleen had ever been investigated over claims of abuse. The first accounts of Dennehy’s descent from a loved child in a stable home to murderous killer can be told for the first time after two of her accomplices were convicted for helping to cover up her crimes. But her decision to plead guilty in November means that her reasons for the attacks are not yet fully understood.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC outlined how Dennehy, who abused drugs and alcohol, was admitted to a psychiatric unit at Peterborough City Hospital between February 18 and 21 2012. However it appears clear that the mother-of-two was seeking notoriety as a serial killer. She danced a jig of delight after seeing a television news report about the killings that started on 19 March last year when she stabbed the Pole Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, who made the fatal error of thinking he had met a girlfriend in Dennehy.
She was diagnosed with a personality disorder, psychopathic, anti-social and emotional instability disorders and an obsessive compulsive disorder. Ten days later, she killed John Chapman, 56, in his bedsit at the block in Peterborough that she shared. He too was stabbed in the heart after being accused of seeing Dennehy in the bath and a photograph was taken of his body. On the same day, she murdered Kevin Lee, 48, her landlord and lover who was said to have become obsessed with her.
When detained by police, she told medical staff she was on anti-psychotic medication and she suffered from a bipolar disorder for which she took medication. In a last act of cruelty, she dressed him in a black dress before dumping his body in ditch like the other two men. However, Dennehy was not satisfied and desired to kill again.
She also claimed to suffer from epilepsy and depression. With her friend Gary Stretch, a 7ft 3in unsuccessful career burglar, she drove to his home town of Hereford. They stopped at a friend’s house where she told a witness: “I’m a killer. I’ve killed three people, Gary helped dispose of them and I want to do some more. I want some fun. You’ve had your fun Gary, I want some fun now.”
She had a history of self-harming and pictures of her exposing her stomach, revealing pronounced scarring, were shown in court.
Elaborating on her condition, prosecutor Andrew Jackson said Dennehy's emotional instability was “severe” and her disorder included superficial charm, disregard for others, pathological lying, a lack of remorse and a capacity to exaggerate and lie.
A separate psychiatric report was prepared by her defence team but not presented in open court.
During legal argument it was revealed that the report showed she had a predilection for “coupling sexual activity with acts of violence”.
Undated handout photos of (left to right) Gary 'Stretch' Richards, 47, and Leslie Layton, 36, who aided serial killer Joanna Dennehy and have been convicted of further offences relating to her killing spree.  Undated handout photos of (left to right) Gary 'Stretch' Richards, 47, and Leslie Layton, 36, who aided serial killer Joanna Dennehy and have been convicted of further offences relating to her killing spree.  
Speaking outside court, Dr Samantha Lundrigan, senior lecturer in criminology at Anglia Ruskin University, described Dennehy as a “classic psychopath” who was likely to have suffered at the hands of men at some point in her life. Driven around the streets, she identified two men whom she attacked and left for dead. Both survived and gave evidence at the trial of Stretch and another man, Leslie Layton, who were both convicted of failing to prevent a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice. Asked what he would like to say to Dennehy, John Rogers, the last of the victims, said: “Why? Why did you do it?”
“Women are normally seen as care givers while men have a greater propensity for violence,” Dr Lundrigan said. Dennehy was a pathological liar. She routinely claimed she had served time for murdering her father after years of abuse. Her father, Kevin, a security guard, is alive and well. Neither he, nor her mother Kathleen, had ever been investigated over such claims.
“She reversed these roles and behaved like a man - she was in control and manipulated men to her ends. Her family say she had a happy and loving childhood in Hertfordshire, but descended into drink and drugs as a teenager. “I think the people, the drugs and the environment she went into triggered something dark inside her,” her sister Maria told The Mail on Sunday.
“She killed with a knife which is a very intimate weapon and that is very unusual for a woman. She left home at 15 and began a turbulent relationship with John Treanor, a man five years older than her, with whom she had two children. The pair’s relationship – marked by frequent disputes, violence by Dennehy and long separations – ended only after Mr Treanor took the children away, complaining of her violence. He has since remarried and lives with his wife and the two girls, aged 13 and seven, in Glossop, Derbyshire.
“Violent crime is almost always about power. I would bet that there was some form of abuse or significant trauma at the hands of a man or men somewhere in her past.” After the break-up, she moved to Peterborough where she began living in a bedsit owned by one of her victims, Kevin Lee, and acted as his enforcer and did odd-jobs in return for her rent.
Dennehy grew up in Harpenden, Herfordshire, where she attended Roundwood Park School. She left home at 15 after reportedly falling in with a “bad crowd”. She was admitted to a psychiatric unit in Peterborough a year before the murder spree, where she was diagnosed with a series of psychopathic and other disorders. She claimed to suffer from depression and had a history of self-harm.
She met John Treanor, the father of her children who now lives in Derbyshire, in 1997 and they later set up home in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Her stomach was flecked with pronounced scars from where she had slashed herself with razor blades. The scarring was revealed in pictures that she posed for before her final stabbing spree in Hereford that she likened to the last stand of Bonnie and Clyde, who were shot dead by police after killing nine people. She is due to be sentenced at a later date along with the three men she cajoled into helping her.
After their 12-year relationship came to an end, her life descended further into alcohol abuse, drug addiction and mental illness. “If she is a psychopath, she will like to have the attention on her,” said Dr Lundrigan, a senior lecturer in criminology at Anglia Ruskin University. “Once the limelight is gone, she may feel compelled to offer some kind of explanation in order to keep the focus on her.”
She moved to Peterborough, and in 2013 began living in a bedsit owned by one of her victims, Kevin Lee.
One woman, who lived near her in Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, and did not want to be named, said outside court: “I got to know her through friends but we weren't close, I never felt comfortable around her.
“There were all these stories about how she had just got out of prison but we later found out that wasn't true so it's difficult to know what to believe.
“She didn't speak about family or anything like that.
“A lot of people were scared of her. I knew she was capable of violence but nothing like this and we're all still at a loss about why she did it.”
Although no explanation has been offered by Dennehy so far, Dr Lundrigan said it was possible she may seek to speak out at some point in the future.
“If she is a psychopath, she will like to have the attention on her,” she added.
“Once the limelight is gone, she may feel compelled to offer some kind of explanation in order to keep the focus on her.
“Whether or not that explanation has any truth to it is another matter.”
PA