ITV drama Until It Kills You It tells the true story of nurse Delia Balmer’s terrifying experience with her boyfriend, John Sweeney, who she realized was a serial killer.

Stars of the four-part TV series Anna Maxwell Martin And Shaun Evans As Balmer and Sweeney, it shows the early days of the duo’s relationship with their terrifying final encounter. Until I Kill You is based on Balmer’s memoir Living with a Serial Killer, published in 2017.

The shocking true story behind Till I Kill You

Balmer met Sweeney in a bar in Camden Town in 1991, the pair hit it off immediately and realized they had a shared love of travel. Sweeney told Balmer that he had worked on construction sites in Germany and was interested in him because he was well-traveled and looked exotic.

The early days of their relationship were positive, with Sweeney calling her regularly and giving her flowers, but Balmer realized that her early affection was a complete manipulation once their relationship began in earnest. He became increasingly controlling and soon subjected her to horrific abuse.

Read more: Love bombing: The manipulative relationship tactic you need to know

Writing in his memoirs, Ham and HighBalmer said: “Subtle changes occurred gradually. I should have known something was wrong but I’m so gentle and trusting. “I’ve never come across anything like this before.”

Three years into an abusive relationship, Balmer desperately wanted to get out but was afraid of what would happen if she did. In 1994 Sweeney briefly left Balmer. He changed the locks and asked police to search the flat, where a bag was found hidden behind the bathroom panel, which he described as “a body disposal kit designed for me”.

Balmer feared Sweeney would return, but despite his warnings to the police, Sweeney broke into his home and held him hostage for four days. Sweeney said he killed his previous girlfriend, Melissa Halstead, and two German men in Amsterdam after tying her to a bed and threatening her with a gun.

Halstead’s body was found in a canal in Rotterdam in 1990, but police have yet to find a suspect. Balmer wrote about her confession in her book: “It was as if he could read my thoughts, I knew I shouldn’t have screamed, I didn’t know what he could do, he had a demonic look in his eyes.”

Sweeney eventually fled the apartment and Balmer went to the police to tell them what happened. They arrested Sweeney for holding him hostage, but he was released on bail.

Balmer was horrified, and his fears came true when he returned home one day to find Sweeney with an ax in his hand. He attacked her and cut off one of her fingers. A neighbor was able to help Balmer by hitting Sweeney with a baseball bat, and Balmer escaped.

Balmer said in 2017: Mirror experience: “I saw this finger flying in the air on the doorstep and I thought: ‘That’s it. I don’t want to live anymore. I don’t want to live in this anger and pain’. So when I woke up in the ICU, I wasn’t happy and I thought: ‘Oh no, what happens now?’

Balmer was seriously injured during the attack, his tendons were torn, his arm was broken and his finger was missing. He told The Mirror he still suffers from the mental and physical pain of the experience, saying: “Even after all these years, the scars and pain constantly remind me of my life with a serial killer.”

Sweeney was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to four life sentences for the attempted murder of Balmer. While serving this sentence in 2010, he was also accused of Halstead’s murder, as well as the murder of Paula Fields, whom he killed while escaping.

He was found guilty of both crimes in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Authorities believe he may have killed three more women between 1970 and 1990. BBC.

Till I Kill You airs over four nights on ITV1 from 9pm on Sunday 3 November.

For support contact Aid to Women, Victim Support, Survivors’ Trust or Survivors United Kingdom (for male victims of sexual assault). Or you can contact us 24 hours a day Free National Domestic Abuse Hotline run by RefugeFrom 0808 2000 247.

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