Joanna Dennehy: Laughing serial killer jailed for life

A psychopath serial killer who murdered three men ‘for fun" and stabbed two more strangers laughed in the dock before she was told she would die behind bars. 

Joanna Dennehy, who had seemed relaxed throughout the hearing, muttered, smirked and swore as sentence was passed today at London"s Old Bailey.

Mr Justice Spencer told Dennehy she was ‘a cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer" who killed to ‘gratify her own sadistic lust for blood".

‘Within the space of ten days you murdered three men in cold blood," he said.

‘Although you pleaded guilty, you"ve made it quite clear you have no remorse.

‘Only a matter of days later you attempted to kill two more men – victims chosen entirely at random.

‘You claim to feel remorse for those attacks but I have no hesitation in rejecting that."

Victims: Lukasz Slaboszewski, John Chapman and Kevin Lee (Picture: Cambridgeshire Police/PA)

He added: ‘The death and destruction you are responsible for has caused untold distress for the families of those killed and of those who survived."

The 31-year-old earlier admitted the murders of Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, Kevin Lee, 48, and John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough over a 10-day period.

She also randomly selected and repeatedly stabbed dog walkers John Rogers and Robin Bereza while on the run from police in March and April last year.

Nigel Lickley QC, representing Dennehy, who the court heard has the birth name Joanne, acknowledged that her crimes were ‘exceptionally serious".

He said that Dennehy had not intended to ‘embarrass or humiliate" her victims.

‘The three men who were killed were not strangers to her," he said.

‘They were killed by a limited number of stab wounds.

‘In essence the crimes are aggravated by the number of offences and the attempted murders."

The 31-year-old murdered three men before randomly selecting and repeatedly stabbing two others (Picture: PA)

During the trial, prosecutors said Dennehy ‘cast a spell" over her alleged accomplices and some of her victims as she killed ‘for fun".

Dennehy was likened to ‘Uma Thurman from Kill Bill and the woman from the Terminator" by married father-of-two Mr Lee shortly before his death.

Accomplices Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton were previously convicted of helping Dennehy dispose of her victims" bodies

A third man, Robert Moore, is awaiting sentence after admitting assisting an offender.