• “Until I Kill You” is about Delia Balmer’s relationship with the so-called Scalp Hunter killer, John Sweeney.
• Balmer dated Sweeney in the 1990s before trying to kill her.

“Until I Kill You” tells the story of a nurse who survived being attacked by her ex-boyfriend, a serial killer known as the “Scalp Hunter”.

The show is the latest in a string of true crime shows and podcastsin a boom started by the 2015 Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer.”

In “Until I Kill You,” viewers see John Sweeney (Shaun Evans) through the eyes of his ex-girlfriend, Delia Balmer (Anna Maxwell Martin). It is adapted from Balmer’s book “Living With a Serial Killer,” which features her relationship with Sweeney.

The show began airing on the British network ITV in November. US viewers can stream it on BritBox from November 13.

The network also released a documentary, “Until I Kill You: The Real Story,” which includes interviews with Balmer about her ordeal.

Here’s what happened to Balmer and Sweeney.

John Sweeney was convicted of murdering two women in 1990 and 2001.

As seen in the series, which is based on Balmer’s book, Sweeney and Balmer began dating in the early 1990s. He assaulted her at home when the relationship began to unravel.

During the assault, he confessed to killing his ex-girlfriend, Melissa Halstead, 33, in Amsterdam. Police discovered Halstead’s dismembered body in a canal in Rotterdam in 1990.

Police arrested Sweeney for assaulting Balmer, but he was released on bail. A few months later, in December 1994, he attacked Balmer at home with an ax and cut off her finger, before a neighbor came to her defense.

Sweeney went on the run and remained at large for six years until February 2001. Police arrested him in London and he received four life sentences for attempting to kill Balmer.

He was serving those sentences at Gartree Prison in Leicestershire when police arrested him in 2010. He was linked to both Halstead’s murder and the death of Paula Fields, 31, whose body parts were found in Regent’s Canal, Camden, in 2001.

During a search of his London home, authorities found 300 artworks depicting extreme violence and a poem titled “Scalp Hunter,” which, The Tutor reported, it referred to Halstead’s death.

It read: “Poor Melissa, cut her to pieces, food to feed the fish, Am*dam was the pits.”

The The BBC reported that authorities also suspected that Sweeney was involved in the disappearance of three other women, including one in the late 1970s or early 1980s – but it is not known whether she was killed or left to work in Switzerland. Two of Sweeney’s other ex-girlfriends have not been seen since he fled in the late 1990s.

In 2011, Sweeney was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Halstead and Fields. Mr Justice Saunders, the judge presiding over the case, said during sentencing: “Once the victims’ heads have been removed it is impossible to be certain how they were killed. Mutilation of corpses is a serious aggravating feature of the crimes. .

“Not only does it reveal the cold-blooded nature of the killer, but it added greatly to the families’ distress to know that body parts of their loved ones were never recovered.”

Delia Balmer survived being attacked by John Sweeney.

Balmer survived both of Sweeney’s attacks and went on to write the 2017 book “Until I Kill You” is an adaptation of. She also appeared in the documentary that accompanied the TV series.

In it, Balmer explained that she has loved dancing since she was little and continues to take dance classes.

She said: “I was very quiet and shy, didn’t have the right friends and was scared of children. My mother took me to the ballet and I always danced when I could. If I’m traveling and there’s music, I’ll dance I’m a perfectionist, but my life is the opposite of perfect.

Towards the end of the documentary, Balmer explained how her experiences with Sweeney changed her.

She said: “I’m an angry person and I was very bitter and I’m still quite bitter. I don’t like the damage done to this body. It shouldn’t have happened.”