Double murderer John Sweeney dies in prison serving life for Canal Killer crimes.
The heads and hands of both of his victims have never been recovered.
20:08, Wed, Aug 26, 2026 Updated: 20:09, Wed, Aug 26, 2026
John Sweeney has died in prison (Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)
A man who killed and butchered two women before dumping their bodies in canals has died in prison. John Sweeney, 69, is understod to have died of cancer at HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire, on Friday, August 14.
Sweeney, a carpenter from Merseyside, was known as the "Canal Killer" after being handed a whole-life prison tariff in 2011. He murdered and dismembered two of his former girlfriends with the heads and hands of both victims never recovered. Melissa Halstead's body was found in a Rotterdam canal in 1990 before the remains of Paula Fields were discovered in London's Regent's Canal in 2001. DE.
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