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The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
World

Serial killer Joanna Dennehy 'worse than Rosemary West and Aileen Wuornos'

She killed three men in just 10 days and critically wounded two more in a stabbing frenzy that shocked Britain and the world.

Now a criminologist has labelled Joanna Dennehy worse than Rosemary West — who murdered at least 12 young women with husband Fred West in the UK's House of Horrors case — and American serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who shot dead seven men.

"The enormity of her crimes almost puts Rosemary West in the shade because most female serial killers work as part of a tag team — in pairs, threes or fours," Christopher Berry-Dee writes in his new book, Talking With Female Serial Killers.

Joanna Dennehy, 35, murdered three men for the thrill of it. Photo / Supplied

"Where Dennehy stands head and shoulders above the rest is because on her own she used a knife —— a three-inch lock-knife — up close and very personal, to stab and stab again and again.

"None of them hold a candle to the fiend that still exists in Joanna Dennehy. In my opinion, she will kill again."

Dennehy, 35 is serving a life sentence for stabbing to death three men whose bodies were found dumped in a ditch in the central England city of Peterborough in March 2013.

She pleaded guilty to all three murders, which took place over a ten day period, and two more attempted murders in early April while she was on the run from police.

"She didn't just kill her three victims, she went into 'overkill' like Uma Thurman in the movie Kill Bill, such was her hatred for men," Mr Berry-Dee writes.

"Then she licked the still-warm blood from the table."

At her 2014 trial, jurors were shown shocking footage of Dennehy flirting with a female shopkeeper while buying tobacco with her boyfriend Gary Stretch.

After leaving the shop, Dennehy launched a savage attack on retired firefighter Robin Bereza.

Joanna Dennehy said she found killing 'more-ish'. Photo / Supplied

The CCTV from Green Lane Store in Hereford captures Dennehy's bizarre behaviour as she prepares to kill again while on the run for murdering three men.

In the clip, recorded on April 2, 2013, Dennehy at first appears ready to attack the shopkeeper, gesturing and pointing at her aggressively.

Witness Mark Lloyd, who joined Dennehy and Stretch in the shop, told the jury she was so agitated during the transaction he feared she was going to hurt the woman.

"My thinking right there was I thought she was going to jump the counter," Mr Lloyd told the court.

"The till was open, she was armed. I thought she was going to rob the girl and do some damage. She started to point her finger and get irate."

Then Dennehy's mood suddenly switches and she starts flirting with the young woman, asking her to do a twirl so she can check out her "nice arse".

Joanna Dennehy stank of evil, said a criminologist who interviewed her.

Dennehy is only the third woman in Britain to be handed a whole-life sentence, along with West, and Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

Mr Berry-Dee says Dennehy's middle class upbringing, as well as the nature of her crimes, made her unusual.

Unlike most serial killers, the mother-of-two did not have a troubled childhood and was a talented and hardworking schoolgirl until she started experimenting with drugs at 14.

When Mr Berry-Dee wrote to Dennehy asking why she murdered the men she told him: "Christopher, it is no secret that I do not regret my actions but I have refused to give motive or make excuses. I have maintained my guilt throughout."

Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, her first victim, was killed one day after bumping into Dennehy at a shopping centre.

Lukasz Slaboszewski was killed and his body storied in a wheelie bin. Photo / Supplied
Joanna Dennehy's second, Royal Navy veteran John Chapman, who was also her flatmate.
Joanna Dennehy's third victim, her landlord and lover Kevin Lee, 48.

The Polish warehouse worker was butchered in her kitchen and dropped into a wheelie bin before being dumped in a remote dyke.

Royal Navy veteran John Chapman, Dennehy's 56-year-old flatmate, was stabbed five times in his sleep and dumped in the same spot as Mr Slaboszewski.

Dennehy's lover and landlord Kevin Lee, 48, was her third victim. He was killed just an hour after she invited him into her home, telling him she wanted to rape him while he wore a dress.

Dog walkers Robin Bereza, 63, and John Rogers, 56, both survived being stabbed multiple times by Dennehy during a nine-minute attack in the town of Hereford, where she had fled to avoid the police investigation in Peterborough.

Talking with Female Serial Killers by Christopher Berry-Dee is available on Amazon.

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