ITV viewers were left shocked after hearing Delia Balmer explain her harrowing experience escaping a serial killer.
Over the past week, the four-part series Until I Kill You has told the real-life story of former agency nurse Delia, who in the 1990s discovered her boyfriend of three years, John Sweeney, had a much darker side.
Based on her 2017 memoir Living with a Serial Killer, it starred Motherland ‘s Anna Maxwell Martin as Delia and Vigil actor Shaun Evans as serial killer John.
It followed the beginning of the pair’s relationship after meeting at a pub in London in 1991 to the times Delia tried to leave him after he became increasingly abusive, up until when John attacked her using an axe.
Following the airing of the crime drama series, the broadcaster also aired a documentary, which saw Delia speak on camera about her ordeal.
After explaining the details of their relationship, Delia then showed cameras the exact bed where her partner attacked her after she told him she wanted to end their relationship.
‘Out comes these ropes and then he tied them to the bed and then he tied my ankles and grabbed my arms and held me down,’ she recalled.
‘At first I struggled and then I found out it was best not to struggle because he fixed it, and it would get tighter if I struggled.’
Sweeney then pulled out a knife and a gun hidden by the bed and began to interrogate her about ex-boyfriends.
‘He threatened to cut my tongue out if I screamed,’ she said.
Sweeney then admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend and two men and ‘cutting up their bodies and throwing them in a canal’ a few years earlier.
Hearing the unsettling details, viewers were taken aback, with some also shocked that Delia had decided to keep the furniture she was attacked on.
The former nurse was attacked and nearly murdered by her ex-partner in 1994 (Picture: Shutterstock)
‘Wow…Delia still has all the furniture and the bed that that monster made (& mattress by the looks of it). Jeez! I’d have burnt the lot,’ Nicola posted on X.
‘I’m surprised that Delia still has all the furniture John made tbh,’ user Flopsy shared.
‘I don’t understand why the real Delia Balmer would keep anything relating to John Sweeney – the table he made, the bed he tied her to, his drawings… I’d want completely rid!’ DVDFever added.
Many others also praised her bravery in speaking about her distressing experience.
‘God, this is harrowing. Delia you are a strong brave woman, and I’m so glad you found a happy future after this hell,’ Charlotte wrote.
‘Watching Until I Kill You: The Real Story. It is so unbelievable what a human being can cope with. Feel quite sick seeing Delia reliving her hell,’ Jacky shared.
‘What a very brave and resilient woman Delia Balmer is,’ Laura added.
After spending a week being held hostage and being assaulted multiple times, Delia was released by Sweeney.
However, her life was again put at risk when he attacked her a second time after being released on bail.
After being saved by a neighbour, who hit Sweeney over the head with a baseball bat, Delia spent months in hospital recovering from her horrific injuries while he went on the run.
As one officer recalled in the documentary, they discovered a ‘bag full of items he would need to dispose of Delia’s body’, which included blades, rubber gloves, rope, tarpaulin and duct tape.
While initially holding Delia hostage, Sweeney had admitted to the murder of his former partner, Melissa Halstead, whose dismembered body was found in a canal in the Netherlands in 1990.
After going on the run in 1994, six years later he was arrested in 2001 and given a nine-year sentence for attempting to murder Delia.
A year earlier he had also murdered Paula Fields and was eventually found guilty of her and Halstead’s murders in 2011 too.
According to the BBC, authorities believe he may have killed three more women between 1970 and 1990.
The former carpenter, 67, is still in prison.
Until I Kill You and Until I Kill You: The Real Story are streaming on ITVX.
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