Convicted double killer John Sweeney died from cancer while serving a whole-life sentence at HMP Whitemoor, The Times has reported.

When I first reported on the 69-year-old's death on 14 August, the specific medical cause had not been confirmed. Sweeney died behind bars without ever disclosing what he did with the missing remains of his victims.

Sweeney, a carpenter who became known as the "canal killer", was handed a whole-life order in 2011 for the murders of two former girlfriends, Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields, whose dismembered remains he dumped in waterways.

In 1990, Sweeney killed Ms Halstead, a 33-year-old former model from Ohio in the United States. Her dismembered body was found in a canal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, but remained unidentified for 18 years until DNA confirmation. Her head and hands were never found.

Eleven years later, in February 2001, parts of the body of 31-year-old Ms Fields were discovered packed into six holdalls floating in Regent's Canal in Camden, north London. Her head, hands and feet are also still missing. Prosecutors at Sweeney's Old Bailey trial said the removal of body parts was a deliberate effort to prevent identification.

When police searched Sweeney's north London home, they found hundreds of violent paintings and verses, including depictions of a bloodied axe and references in which he called himself the "Scalp Hunter". Detectives also suspected he may have killed other former partners who disappeared.

Before his 2011 murder trial, Sweeney had already been jailed for the attempted murder of another former girlfriend, Delia Balmer, whom he attacked with an axe and hammer in north London in 1994. Ms Balmer later published a memoir of her survival, which was adapted into the 2024 ITV drama Until I Kill You.

A Prison Service spokesperson described Sweeney's crimes as "horrific" and said their thoughts remained with the victims and their families. As is standard practice for all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is conducting an official investigation.