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ITV’s new series Until It Kills You It tells the true story of nurse Delia Balmer’s shocking ordeal when she realizes her boyfriend of three years is a serial killer.

TV series based on Balmer’s 2017 memoir Living with a Serial Killerstars Homeland Anna Maxwell Martin as Balmer andWatch actor Shaun Evans stars as serial killer John Sweeney. It tells the story of everything from the beginning of the couple’s relationship to all the moments when Balmer tried to leave Sweeney until he attacked her with an axe.

Balmer and Sweeney met in a bar in Camden, London, in 1991 and hit it off immediately after learning of each other’s love of travel. Sweeney told Balmer that he worked on construction sites in Germany and traveled frequently.

When their relationship began, Sweeney called Balmer regularly; He would gift her flowers and show her affection. Balmer later realized that these attempts to show affection were manipulative, as he became increasingly controlling and physically abusive as time went on.

Writing in his memoirs, Balmer noted that the changes occurred gradually at first. “I should have known something was wrong but I’m so gentle and trusting. “I’ve never come across anything like this before,” he wrote.

Balmer tried to get out of the relationship but feared for his safety. She briefly separated from Sweeney in 1994 and changed the locks on her front door. He asked police to investigate a suspicious bag hidden behind a bathroom panel, which he described in the book as a “body disposal kit meant for me”.

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Despite Balmer’s attempts to alert the police, Sweeney broke into her home and held her hostage for four days, tying her to a bed and threatening her with a gun. He later confessed to killing his previous girlfriend, 33-year-old Melissa Halstead, and two men in Amsterdam (Halstead’s remains were found dismembered in a canal in Rotterdam in 1990, but no suspects were linked).

When Sweeney left the apartment, Balmer ran off to report what had happened to the police. They arrested Sweeney for holding him hostage but let him out on bail.

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Balmer returned home the day after Sweeney’s release to find him waiting to attack him with an axe. In heartbreaking scenes depicted in both the book and the TV series, Sweeney cut off one of Balmer’s fingers while a neighbor came to his rescue by hitting Sweeney with a baseball bat. Sweeney escaped and took off running.

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At the subsequent hearing Balmer said: “He was holding the ax ready over his head to finish me off. Then the man next door went out and put his life in danger. “I was curled up ready to go.”

Balmer was seriously injured; His arm was broken, tendons were torn, and he was missing a finger.

Sweeney was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to four life sentences for the attempted murder of Balmer and for possessing four weapons when he was arrested while on the run.

While serving that sentence in 2010, he was charged with the murder of Halstead and the murder of 31-year-old Paula Fields, whom he killed while fleeing. His body was also found in the Regent’s Canal near Camden in 2001.

He was found guilty of both crimes in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Authorities believe he may have killed three other women who disappeared in the area between 1970 and 1990, according to the BBC.

When Sweeney, originally from Merseyside, was sentenced at the Old Bailey in 2011, Judge Mr Justice Saunders described the murders as “horrible, evil crimes”.

“Since the victims’ heads were removed, it is impossible to be sure how they were killed. “The dismemberment of bodies is a seriously aggravating feature of murders,” he explained.

“Not only does this reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it also greatly adds to the families’ distress knowing that their loved ones’ body parts were never found.”

Until It Kills You It starts on ITV1 on November 3.