Serial killer Joanna Dennehy who carried out three savage murders during a 10-day killing spree, was sentenced to life imprisonment today.
She was branded a ‘cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative’ murderer by Mr Justice Spencer as she became the first woman ever to be given a whole life sentence by a judge.
Joanna 31, murdered three men in Peterborough last March before attempting to kill two dog walkers in Hereford she chose at random while on the run.
This afternoon the serial killer appeared relaxed in the dock as she was sentenced – muttering, smirking and shouting the word ‘b******s’ from the dock at the Old Bailey.
Dennehy had already admitted killing Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, Kevin Lee, 48, and John Chapman, 56.
Mr Justice Spencer said that she found killing ‘more-ish’.
Addressing her, he said: ‘Within the space of ten days you murdered three men in cold blood.
‘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. Miraculously they survived.
‘You claim to feel remorse for those attacks but I have no hesitation in rejecting that.
‘You are a cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer.’
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.’
Reading from a psychiatrist report, he said: ‘I killed to see how I would feel, to see if I was as cold as I thought I was, then it got more-ish.’
Police launched a nationwide hunt to find her after the bodies were discovered in remote ditches in Cambridgeshire.
At an earlier hearing she declared from the dock: ‘I am not sorry for the murders’.
Initially she denied the slayings, which were carried out over the Easter period last year in Cambridgeshire.
But in shocking scenes at the Old Bailey last November, Dennehy stunned her barrister by suddenly confessing to her crimes.
Today the judge described how Dennehy had sent him a letter saying she was not sorry for the murders.
As she was brought into the dock at the start of the day, Dennehy, wearing a pink Adidas vest top which revealed scarring to her arms, seemed to laugh and joke with her accomplices.
Mr Lee’s wife, Christina, was in court along with their children Chiara, 25, and Dino, 15, and about 20 other family members.
Attempted murder victim Mr Bereza was also in court.
Nigel Lickley QC, representing Dennehy, who the court heard was called Joanne at birth, acknowledged her crimes were ‘exceptionally serious’.
But he added that she had not intended to ’embarrass or humiliate’ her victims.
‘The three men who were killed were not strangers to her,’ he added.
‘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.’