Rose West moved jails after 'most dangerous female killer' plotted her murder

Daily Mirror

3 days ago

Joanna Dennehy is considered one of the most dangerous prisoners in the UK - and she is one of only a handful of women who are serving a whole life order after murdering three people and injuring two others
Triple killer Joanna Dennehy is deemed to be the most dangerous female prisoner in the UK. The 42 year old was sentenced to was handed a whole life order - the most severe sentence, which offers no possibility of parole - after going on a 10-day killing spree that she called "moreish and fun".
In 2013 she slaughtered three people in Peterborough - stabbing her lover Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, housemate John Chapman, 56, and her landlord and lover Kevin Lee, 48, in the heart. She dumped her victims' bodies in a ditch before going on the run and stabbing two more people - Robin Bereza, 64, and 56-year-old John Rogers who were walking their dogs. Luckily, both survived her terrifying attack. Before dumping Mr Lee's body, she dressed him in a black sequinned dress and left him with his buttocks exposed.
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She is one of only four women currently serving a whole life order, and an expert has said that the triple killer's behaviour in prison shows she still poses a major threat. Indeed, Joanna has shown no regret or remorse for the murders.
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Ruling that she will die behind bars, the judge who handed down her sentence called her "cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative". The terrifying killer set the tone for her life behind bars almost immediately after arriving at the high-security prison HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, when she allegedly threatened to murder Rose West.
Serial killer West is one of the other women currently serving a whole life order after brutally murdering 10 people along with her husband Fred West. Determined to cement her place as 'top dog', a top criminologist and author told how Dennehy plotted to kill West and overtake her in the prison pecking order.
Christopher Berry-Dee, who has interviewed both, said staff at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey took the threat so seriously West was taken to solitary confinement and then transferred her to another prison the next morning.
"Joanna Dennehy tried from the get-go to assert herself as top dog," he said. "Between five and 20 minutes after first arriving at Bronzefield in 2014, she said she was going to kill Rose West. Dennehy quickly established herself as the shot-caller. She has guards and inmates at her beck and call."
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Berry-Dee, an ex-commando who spent decades researching serial killers, shared the chilling claims in his book, Talking with Female Serial Killers. He met Dennehy at Bronzefield in July 2014 and was disturbed by her mask of charm which hid an ice cold, psychopathic nature.
Berry-Dee said: "Jo Dennehy was, without doubt, the most evil person I have ever met. She was streets ahead of Aileen Wuornos. When we met she had shaved hair and had put on a lot of weight since the time of her arrest. She was well-spoken and her voice was quiet and menacing.
"She was very intense, leaning forward on to the table so her face was around one foot from mine. Her eyes really penetrate and she doesn't blink - like the glare of a great white shark.
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"I could smell evil coming off her - it's a smell like no other so it's impossible to describe but it's acrid and dirty. When I've spoken to killers before, there's a warmth, a trace of compassion. But with Jo, just pure evil."
Berry-Dee, who taught interview techniques, tried to bait Dennehy into explaining why she committed murder. But she blocked his every attempt, then threatened to kill him. He said: "Murderers have said things like that to me before, but this time I froze. I knew Jo was serious."
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She has caused havoc in prison. She formed a lesbian relationship with an inmate but threatened to kill her when she discovered she had a girlfriend outside. Guards unearthed an escape plot which involved cutting off a female guard's finger to activate locks. Ominously, Christopher is convinced Dennehy will commit murder behind bars.
He said: "No amount of prison psychiatry will ever remove the psychotic nature of Jo. She's like a black widow spider, festering, waiting to pounce. She will kill again – no doubt about that. I predict her next victim will be a prison guard stabbed to death."
In sharp contrast, Berry-Dee believed West, whom he met at HMP Winchester, poses "zero threat". He said: "Without Fred I believe Rose would never have killed anyone. They were like a hand grenade and detonator - once they got together, bang."
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Dennehy has spent much of her sentence in solitary confinement to avoid the killer from enacting further violence, something she tried to get compensation for in 2016, claiming it was a violation of her human rights.
Her bid was unsuccessful, with the legal team acting for the prison calling her "arguably the most dangerous female prisoner in custody".
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Four years later, Joanna was transferred to HMP Low Newton after it was discovered she had been having an affair with a male prison guard - but in her new prison, she has reportedly struck up a relationship with another violent killer, Emma Aitken.
Joanna's murderer girlfriend was sentenced to life in prison after murdering Barry Smith in 2013, alongside her then-boyfriend Nathan Doherty, and father Vincent. Barry's body was found burnt and with signs that he had been cruelly beaten outside Kilburn Welfare Social Club, Derbyshire.
"They make cheesecake and trifles while other ­people are locked away in their cells," a source has said about Dennehy and Aitken's relationship, adding that "Other inmates are scared of Joanna because of her crime and her attitude. She is not someone to be messed with."
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An expert criminologist and former prison governor - Professor David Wilson - has said that Joanna's romance with Emma is part of her established criminal profile - which has seen her repeatedly try to manipulate people using sex.
Even in the immediate aftermath of her violent stabbing of the dogwalkers, whilst she was in the police station being interviewed, she is said to have started flirting with the female custody sergeant who was working that day.
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Joanna uses sex to stay in charge of things, the expert said to the Mail Online, and he noted that she stands out as a female spree killer.
"Dennehy is one of the very few female spree killers in criminological history," he told the Mail. "Spree murders tend to be a male phenomenon but here you have someone who killed three men and tried to kill two more alongside her accomplice, Gary Stretch.
"There is some indication that Dennehy and Stretch were operating inside a folie à deux, which is a term for a shared psychosis or 'madness of two'. But in this one it is quite clear that she was the dominant partner, and Stretch was subordinate and afraid of her.
"I don't know what can be done with her in terms of changing her behaviour because she seems to have extreme violent tendencies, and that is based on having interviewed people who were very close to her - including her former husband."