Inside axe murderer John Sweeney's six years on the run and how he was finally caught

The ITV series, Until I Kill You, continues this week, based on Delia Balmer's memoir, Living With A Serial Killer. It tells the chilling tale of how John Sweeney, initially a caring partner, gradually turned violent and controlling towards Delia.

Sweeney trapped Delia in her own home multiple times, torturing her and even confessing to the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Melissa Halstead. After a final brutal attack that nearly claimed Delia's life, Sweeney fled.

Shockingly, it took the police six years to locate him and convict him for several murders. Prior to the gruesome assault outside Delia's residence, Sweeney had already had run-ins with the law due to a previous assault on her.

Despite this, he violated police conditions by visiting Delia's house and attacking her with an axe and knife, leaving her with severe, life-altering injuries. Following the 1994 attack, he evaded capture for six years before being arrested at a building site in central London.

Before returning to London under a false name, he had killed another woman, Paula Fields. Police were eventually able to link him to both murders thanks to a collection of disturbing drawings and poems, reports the Mirror.

Over 300 pieces of artwork were discovered, including one titled the Scalp Hunter, which depicted a female victim and a blood-soaked axe.

A poem discovered on the back of a scratchcard, penned about his first girlfriend and the woman he brutally killed and dismembered before discarding her parts in a Dutch canal, read: "Poor old Melissa, chopped her up in bits, food to feed the fish, Am*dam was the pits."

Melissa's body was finally located in Rotterdam's Westersingel Canal subsequent to her mysterious disappearance from an Amsterdam residence back in 1990.

Identifying her proved to be a lengthy process, not achieved until 2008, when Dutch police conducted a cold case probe that successfully established a match with familial DNA.

The long-dormant inquiry had seen new life, part of which came from funding provided by the European Union, supporting renewed investigation efforts.

His next victim was Paula Fields, who hailed from Liverpool before encountering Sweeney in 2000.

Paula's presence ceased to be known only three months following their meeting, and it wasn't until February 2001 that parts of her dismembered body were discovered stuffed into six bags within the Regent's Canal near King's Cross.

It took until six years after the tragic find for police to apprehend Sweeney, linked partly to Paula's discovery.

Rather shockingly, it was Sweeney's own macabre art that would lead to his downfall, betraying a connection to both tragedies.

Artwork containing what is presumed to be an image of Melissa titled 'One Man Band' featured a conspicuous section covered in correction fluid.

However, an ultraviolet light examination revealed a hidden epitaph: "Melissa Halstead, born 7 November 1956. Died."

Until I Kill You continues on ITV at 9pm