Female serial killer pleads guilty to 3 murders

Joanna Dennehy was expected to be sent for trial when she appeared in court accused of murdering three men. Instead she shocked the court, including her own defence team, by confessing to the killings – and the attempted murder of two other men.

She also objected when her lawyers asked for a delay to check that she really wanted to plead guilty.
Her barrister, Mr Nigel Lickley QC, told the court: “The course of the arraignment is not one I had anticipated.
“We ask for more time given what has just occurred.”
But Dennehy interrupted him, saying: “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.”
Her barrister Mr Lickley said: “It is incumbent on us to inform the court whether the pleas will be maintained or changed and to that end arrangements have been made to see Miss Dennehy hopefully on Friday this week.
“If that is possible we will inform the court on Monday.”
But Dennehy then interrupted to say: “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.”
Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said: “She has pleaded guilty to a large number of counts, clearly intentionally, and in the circumstances if there is to be any application for a change than I will consider it but otherwise she has pleaded guilty.”
The judge ordered that Dennehy’s defence team notify the court by next Monday if there is to be “any application to vacate the pleas entered”.
The 31-year-old, wearing a white shirt as she sat in the dock, pleaded guilty to murdering property developer Kevin Lee, 48, Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, and John Chapman, 56.
She also admitted the attempted murders of Robin Bereza and John Rogers.
Tattooed Dennehy, 31, had been expected to stand trial over the murders before her dramatic guilty pleas at the Old Bailey.
Mr Lee died of stab wounds to the chest and was found in a ditch in Newborough, Cambridgeshire, on March 30.
The court heard Slaboszewski was stabbed in the heart while Mr Chapman was stabbed in the neck and chest.
Their bodies were found around 10 miles away in Thorney Dyke on April 3.
Following the killings police launched a nationwide appeal to find Dennehy, who lived in nearby Peterborough.
The discovery of Mr Lee’s body sparked a huge manhunt for Dennehy.
At the time Dennehy was being hunted, police also confirmed that she had previous convictions, but would not disclose what they were for.
She was arrested following a massive manhunt involving several police forces.
Dennehy appeared in the dock alongside her boyfriend Gary Richards, 47, who stands 7ft 3in tall and is also known as Gary Stretch.
He denied the two attempted murders on April 2 and helping Dennehy to dump the three bodies.
The three defendants, all of Peterborough, are expected to go on trial in January next year.
Dennehy will be sentenced at a later date.

Culled from Mirror.co.uk