One of Britain's most notorious female serial killers, Joanne Dennehy, celebrated a murder by singing a pop anthem, a court heard. The Peterborough ditch murderer killed three men in a ten-day frenzy in March 2013, later admitting she developed a "taste for it".
A Ten-Day Reign of Terror
Joanne Christine Dennehy began her murder spree in March 2013 after a life marked by petty crime and alcoholism. The mother, who insisted she would only target men, explained her motive to an accomplice in eleven chilling words: "I want my fun. I need you to get my fun." Her first victim was Lukasz Slaboszewski, a Polish national who believed Dennehy was his girlfriend.
Dennehy lured Slaboszewski to her home with sexual text messages before stabbing him in the heart. She later told a psychiatrist she killed him "to see if I was as cold as I thought I was". Shockingly, she showed his body, dumped in a wheelie bin, to a 14-year-old girl she had groomed, describing the murder as "moreish".
A week later, she stabbed her 56-year-old housemate to death with a pocket knife. On the same day, she killed Kevin Lee using the same honey-trap method. After his murder, she dressed his corpse in a black sequined dress, posed it in a ditch, and intentionally left his backside exposed. The trial judge stated this was a deliberate act to humiliate Lee in death.
The Chilling Celebration
Following the killing of Kevin Lee, Dennehy's behaviour took a particularly macabre turn. She phoned a friend and sang Britney Spears's hit "Oops… I Did It Again" in a sickening act of celebration. She was also seen dancing with joy upon seeing a television news report about the killings, which had taken place over a fortnight.
Her spree was not over. Weeks later, accomplice Gary Stretch drove her to Hereford, where she randomly attacked two men walking their dogs, leaving both for dead and stealing one of the dogs.
Justice and a Twisted Psychology
In November 2013, Dennehy pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and two of attempted murder. The presiding judge, Mr Justice Spencer, labelled her "a cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative murderer" and handed her a whole-life tariff. Stretch received a life sentence, while two other accomplices were jailed for 14 and three years respectively.
The trial revealed a lack of clear motivation beyond a mere desire to kill. Witnesses said Dennehy fantasised about being like Bonnie and Clyde. Stretch confessed she told him the murders were "entertainment" for her. Mr Justice Spencer stated that Dennehy suffered from paraphilia sadomasochism, a psychological condition involving the infliction of pain and humiliation for sexual enjoyment.
Throughout, she maintained she would never attack a woman, especially a mother like herself, directing her violent compulsions exclusively towards men. Her case remains one of the most disturbing in recent British criminal history.
