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‘Til I Kill You: What Happened to John Sweeney and Delia Balmer?
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‘Til I Kill You: What Happened to John Sweeney and Delia Balmer?

  • “Til I Kill You” follows Delia Balmer’s relationship with the alleged Scalp Hunter murderer John Sweeney.
  • Balmer was with Sweeney in the 1990s before he tried to kill her.
  • In 2011, Sweeney was convicted of murdering two women and is thought to have killed several more.

“Until I Kill You” tells the story of a nurse who survives an attack by her ex-boyfriend, a serial killer known as the “Scalp Hunter”.

The show is the latest in a series of TV series true crime shows and podcastsIn the explosion started by Netflix’s 2015 documentary “Making a Murderer.”

In “Til I Kill You,” viewers watch John Sweeney (Shaun Evans) through the eyes of his ex-girlfriend Delia Balmer (Anna Maxwell Martin). It is adapted from Balmer’s book “Living With a Serial Killer”, which describes his relationship with Sweeney.

The show began airing on British channel ITV in November. US viewers can watch the film on BritBox starting November 13.

The channel also aired a documentary called “Till It Kills You: The Real Story”, which included interviews about Balmer’s hardships.

Here’s what happened to Balmer and Sweeney.

John Sweeney was convicted of murdering two women in 1990 and 2001.


An old photo of a bald man wearing a blue and white shirt looking at the camera.

A photo of John Sweeney seen in “Till It Kills You: The True Story.”

ITVX



As seen in the TV series adapted from Balmer’s book Sweeney and Balmer started dating in the early 1990s. When the relationship began to deteriorate, he attacked her at her home.

He admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend, 33-year-old Melissa Halstead, in Amsterdam during the attack. Police found Halstead’s dismembered body in a Rotterdam canal in 1990.

Police arrested Sweeney for assaulting Balmer but he was released on bail. A few months later, in December 1994, he attacked Balmer at his home with an ax and cut off his finger before a neighbor intervened to defend him.

Sweeney escaped and remained a fugitive for six years, until February 2001. Police arrested him in London and he was sentenced to four life sentences for the attempted murder of Balmer.

He was serving those sentences at Gartree Prison in Leicestershire when police arrested him in 2010. He was linked to Halstead’s murder and the death of 31-year-old Paula Fields, whose body parts were found in the Regent’s Canal in Camden in 2001.

During a search of his London home, authorities found 300 works of art depicting extreme violence and a poem titled “Scalp Hunter.” Guard Halstead’s death was reportedly mentioned.

It read: “Poor Melissa, she tore it into pieces, food to feed the fishes, My pussy was pits.”

BBC reported He said authorities also suspected Sweeney was involved in the disappearances of three other women, one in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but it was not known whether she was killed or left to work in Switzerland. Neither of Sweeney’s other ex-girlfriends have been seen since they went on the run in the late 1990s.

In 2011, Sweeney was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Halstead and Fields. The judge presiding over the case, Mr Justice Saunders, said at sentencing: “As the victims’ heads had been removed, it is impossible to be sure how they were killed. The dismemberment of the bodies is a serious aggravating feature of the murders.

“Not only does this reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it also greatly adds to the families’ distress knowing that their loved ones’ body parts were never found.”

Delia Balmer survives John Sweeney’s attack.


An elderly woman with short brown hair wears rimless glasses, a floral shirt and a floral scarf. She also wears a turquoise necklace and sits in front of two leather sofas.

Delia Balmer “Til It Kills You: The True Story.”

ITVX



Balmer survived both of Sweeney’s attacks and wrote the 2017 adaptation of “Until I Kill You.” He also starred in the documentary that accompanied the series.

Balmer explained that she has loved dancing since her childhood and continues to attend dance classes.

She said: “I was very quiet and shy, I didn’t have proper friends and I was afraid of children. My mother took me to the ballet and I danced whenever I could. If I travel and there is music, I will dance. I am a perfectionist but my life is the opposite of perfect.”

Towards the end of the documentary, Balmer talked about how his experiences with Sweeney changed him.

He said: “I’m an angry person and I was very resentful and I still am very resentful. I don’t like the damage that’s been done to this body. This didn’t need to happen.”