Serial killer Joanna Dennehy showed wheelie bin corpse to girl

Court hears new details about 'man woman' who stabbed three men to death in 10-day spree

140116-joanna-dennehy.jpg

A WOMAN who stabbed three men in the heart during a ten-day killing spree, stuffed the body of one of her victims into a wheelie bin, and "casually" showed it to a teenage girl, a court has heard.

Joanna Dennehy "stunned" the Old Bailey late last year when she admitted killing three men and dumping their bodies in ditches in Cambridgeshire. The 30-year-old from Peterborough, who is awaiting sentencing, also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two other men.

The trial of Dennehy's two alleged accomplices has revealed more details about an intimidating "man woman" who has a green star tattooed beneath her right eye and lured men to their deaths with offers of sex, the Daily Telegraph reports. Jurors heard that Dennehy "cast a spell" over Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton encouraging them to cover up the "terrible truth".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Dennehy's first victim, 31-year-old heroin addict Lukasz Slaboszewski, was lured to her house on 19 March last year by a series of text messages, the court heard. She kept his body in a wheelie bin and even showed it to a teenage girl before she wheeled it to a remote ditch where she discarded the corpse.

Ten days later, Dennehy murdered two more men. John Chapman, a 56-year-old Falklands veteran, was high on drink and drugs when he was stabbed to death. The court heard that Dennehy invited Stretch and Leyton to her home after the murder and Leyton took pictures of Chapman's body on his phone.

Dennehy killed her third victim, her 48-year-old lover Kevin Lee, on the same day. After she had stabbed him through the heart, she dressed his body in a black sequin dress before dumping it in a ditch.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told the court: "We say this was deliberately engineered in an act of post-death humiliation."

On 2 April, Dennehy and Stretch drove to Hereford allegedly to find more victims. She selected Robin Bereza and John Rogers, "entire strangers" who were left for dead, the court heard.

Stretch, 47, denies three charges of preventing the lawful burial of all three men and two counts of attempted murder. Layton, 36, denies perverting the course of justice and two counts of preventing the lawful burial of the bodies of Chapman and Lee.

The trial continues.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us