What happened to Paula Fields? Until I Kill You John Sweeney's real life victims

ITV's new drama 'Until I Kill You' continues tonight as a viewers are introduced to a new victim of serial killer John Sweeney.

Until I Kill You is based on the memoirs of agency nurse Delia Balmer who survived sadistic domestic abuse and a terrifying axe attack on her doorstep at the hands of construction worker Sweeney. She had been in a relationship with Sweeney but when she tried to end it, he turned violent.

He kept Delia captive, tying her to the bed for four days, after confessing to killing his ex-girlfriend Melissa Halstead in Amsterdam by chopping her up and dumping her in the canal. After a final brutal attack that nearly claimed Delia's life - while on bail for false imprisonment - Sweeney fled and remained at large for years.

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During this time, Paula Fields, a 31-year-old mother who worked at a laundrette, met psychopath Sweeney.

Who was Paula Fields?

Paula's life was cruelly ended by Sweeney and her remains were discovered in Regent's Canal in 2001 - a year after she disappeared.

Originally from Liverpool, Paula relocated to London in 1998. She briefly worked at a launderette but tragically, her life took a turn when she grappled with drug addiction following her move to the capital.

She was working on the streets of London as a sex worker. It was while she was in this vulnerable situation that Paula met Sweeney, who was back in London and living under an assumed name. The pair struck up a relationship.

A few months into 2000, some family members began to notice changes in Paula's lifestyle. In December 2000 - a decade after the murder of Melissa Halstead - Paula went missing.

Her family added: "Then in December 2000, Paula went missing. Paula had only been in London for 14 months. During that time she had become involved in taking drugs and prostitution."

A sister of Paula read a statement reflecting that the two years preceding her tragic end were merely "a small part" of her existence. She said: "For 29 years Paula was a normal girl. A loving mother, daughter, sister and an aunt. We know she is never coming back and we never said goodbye."

Paula's dismembered remains were found two months later in the Regent's Canal. Paula's body had been cut up into 10 pieces and dumped into the canal in a number of holdalls.

Like with Melissa Halstead, Paula's feet were missing from the bodyparts found in the water. Sweeney was tracked down by authorities in 2001 and convicted of the attempted murder of Delia Smith back in 1994.

What happened to Sweeney?

After the attempted murder of Delia Balmer, Sweeney evaded police by living under fake names. He was on the run for six years. When he was eventually arrested in 2001, he was given four life sentences for Delia's attempted murder, and for having four guns in his possession when he was arrested.

In 2010, while serving his life sentence at Gartree Prison in Leicestershire, Sweeney was finally charged with the murder of Melissa Halstead, whose body was found in a canal in Rotterdam in 1990, and Paula Fields, whose body was found in Regent's Canal in London's Camden in 2001. He murdered her while on the run for Delia's attempted murder.

Sweeney is now serving a whole life sentence without parole for murdering and dismembering women in England and the Netherlands, reports Liverpool Echo. When he was sentenced in 2011, Sweeney refused to leave his prison cell at Belmarsh prison to hear his fate.

Sentencing him, Judge Mr Justice Saunders said only a whole life term was appropriate given the exceptional circumstances. He said: "These were terrible, wicked crimes. The heads of the victims having been removed, it is impossible to be certain how they were killed. The mutilation of the bodies is a serious aggravating feature of the murders.

"Not only does it reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it has added greatly to the distress of the families to know that parts of their loved ones have never been recovered."

Body parts never found

The remains of Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields were both found dumped in canals across Europe - but some of their body parts are still missing. Sweeney never revealed where he hid the heads of his victims.

Delia, who went on to write a book about her ordeal of living with Sweeney, has her own theory about why he continues to hide the body parts - and where they could be.

She said: "It's another form of control. Only John knows where the missing body parts are. When we were in Germany in 1993 he told me that he had stuck a terrarium with his dead pet tarantula inside a brick wall at the building site where he had been working.

"He could easily have done something similar with the missing body parts of his victims. Perhaps somewhere across Europe, concealed in the walls of a building constructed in the 1990s, are Melissa's head or hands, unknown to anyone but John. That is what I believe he did with them."

The drama continues tonight on ITV tonight

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