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Joanna Dennehy given whole-life jail sentence for triple murder Joanna Dennehy given whole-life jail sentence for triple murder
(34 minutes later)
Joanna Dennehy has been given a whole-life prison sentence for killing three men and attempting to murder two more. A woman who went on a killing spree, murdering three men in 10 days, has been sentenced to spend the rest of her life in jail.
She laughed in the dock as the judge said she was "a cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative serial killer". Joanna Dennehy, 31, began her rampage in March last year in Peterborough. She then drove 140 miles to Hereford where she attempted to murder two other men, John Rogers and Robin Bereza.
Dennehy admitted murdering warehouse worker Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, her landlord and boss Kevin Lee, 48, and her housemate John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough over a 10-day period. On Friday at the Old Bailey in London, Mr Justice Spencer sentenced her to a whole-life term, meaning she will never be released. The only other woman serving a whole-life sentence is Rose West.
She also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two strangers, John Rogers and Robin Bereza, and preventing the lawful and decent burial of her victims. Dennehy laughed in the dock as the judge said she was "a cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative serial killer". Spencer said she had a "sadistic lust" for blood.
Her accomplices Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton, who were convicted this month of offences related to her killing spree, are due to be sentenced later. Dennehy appeared in the dock with her accomplices Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton, who were convicted this month of offences related to her killing spree. Dennehy, wearing a pink sleeveless T-shirt, smiled and chatted during the proceedings.
Stretch, 47, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Bereza, while Layton, 36, was convicted of preventing the lawful burial of two murder victims. Prosecutors said the men "revelled in bringing suffering and misery upon their victims and showed no remorse for their atrocious acts". Stretch was sentenced to life in prison and will serve a minimum of 19 years. Layton was sentenced to 14 years, and a third accomplice, Robert Moore, 55, who admitted assisting an offender, received a three-year sentence.
During the trial of her accomplices, Dennehy, from Peterborough, was compared to a character in a Shakespearean tragedy in which an evil deed triggered a series of other violent crimes. Dennehy, who the court heard was called Joanne at birth, is one of the most lethal women in English criminal history. Her first victim was Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, who was lured to a property in Peterborough via suggestive texts and then stabbed through the heart. He had come to believe Dennehy was his girlfriend, which led him to text a friend saying "life is beautiful".
She enjoyed the notoriety of being Britain's most wanted person, and while on the run she compared herself and Stretch to the US robbers Bonnie and Clyde. Over the next fortnight Dennehy used a pocket knife to stab to death her housemate John Chapman, 56, and her landlord and boss, Kevin Lee, 48. In Hereford she attempted to murder two strangers within nine minutes of each other as they walked their dogs.
A long-term user of drugs and alcohol who sometimes turned to prostitution to fund her habit, she drifted around East Anglia, served time in prison and received some treatment for mental health problems. She has been diagnosed as suffering from paraphilia sadomasochism, a condition in which sexual excitement is derived from pain and humiliation. The judge said Dennehy had a "psychopathic personality" and she had provoked a "strange fascination" among the men.
Prosecutors said she "cast a spell" over her accomplices and some of her victims as she killed "for fun". After the Peterborough killings, Dennehy and Stretch drove 140 miles across the country to Hereford where she randomly selected and repeatedly stabbed Bereza and Rogers while they were walking dogs in the street. Both survived despite suffering critical injuries. Lee was found dressed in a black sequinned dress with his buttocks exposed. The judge said the body had been posed in this position in a ditch.
The court heard that Dennehy became excited at reports that police were hunting for her. As graphic and bizarre details of her acts were detailed by the judge, Dennehy appeared to laugh and smile. The court heard that she had told a psychiatrist she killed to see if she was as "cold as I feel" and that spilling blood became "more-ish".
The judge said Dennehy had written him a letter showing no remorse for the murders but claiming some for the attempted murders, which she blamed on "drunken cruelty" and "lack of respect for human life".