Killing of two women denied by John Sweeney at Old Bailey

Published: 06 August, 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

A CONSTRUCTION worker this week denied the murders of two women whose bodies were recovered from canals in Camden Town and Holland.

John Sweeney appeared at the Old Bailey, where he was told that he will stand trial on March 1 next year before Mr Justice Saunders.

Arrested on April 26, he is being held in custody and his pleas were taken over a video link.

Sweeney, 53, of Charteris Road, Finsbury Park, who also had an address in Leighton Road, Kentish Town, pleaded not guilty to the murder of prostitute Paula Fields, 31, a mother-of-two from Highbury Grove, Islington.

Her dismembered body parts were found in six bags dredged from the Regent’s Canal in Camden Town, in February 2001.

He further denies killing Melissa Halstead, 36, an American model and photographer, whose headless remains were not identified for 18 years. Parts of her were recovered from the Westersingel canal in Amsterdam in 1992. She was killed in 1990.