Joanna Dennehy admitted to stabbing and killing three men within days of each other, before disposing of their bodies by dumping them in ditches.
Dennehy, aged,30, allegedly stabbed her landlord, Kevin Lee as well as her two housemates, Lukasz Slaboszewski and John Chapman. Lee, who was a married father, was found dead in a roadside ditch in March. The two other men were found by a farmer in a dyke a few miles away.
The guilty plea from Joanna Dennehy was not expected, as she had been due to stand trial for the three murders and for preventing the lawful burial of the people she killed.
Her plea left the court silent as she announced: “I have pleaded guilty and that’s it.” Attorney Nigel Lickey said: “The course of the arraignment is not one we had anticipated.”
Dennehy also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two other men, Robin Bereza and John Rogers. The defendant objected to more time being allowed for her lawyers over her guilty plea: “I’m not coming back down here again just to say the same stuff. It’s a long way to come to say the same thing I have just said,” she said.
There had been a dispute between Joanna Dennehy and her landlord over the fact he wanted to evict her and her housemates from the property.
Toni Roberts, who used to live in the house, said about Kevin Lee: “Kevin was my landlord and really kind to me and didn’t make me pay a deposit or anything. I can’t say a bad word about him really. I moved out and then Joanna moved into my room. I don’t know if she paid rent or anything though.”
It was clear when the bodies of the three men were found that the stabbings had been brutal. Lee died from stab wounds to the chest while Chapman suffered a knife attack to the neck and chest.
At the time of Chapman’s death his family released the following statement: “He was a wonderful husband, father, loving brother and son. His naturally infectious personality touched everyone who knew him.”
It remains to be seen what sentence will be handed down to Joanna Dennehy for the charges against her. It will be interesting to see what her punishment will be, in light of the fact that Britain doesn’t have the death penalty.
