John then let her go and vanished. For months, Delia was terrified that he’d come back. One night, she came home to find John hiding in her flat. When a friend noticed that Delia hadn’t come to a party, they called the police. When the police arrived, Delia escaped and John was arrested.
However, John was released on bail. On 22nd December 1994, John attacked Delia with an axe and a knife while she was on her way home from work. She lost a finger in the attack, but a neighbour helped her to escape. Delia spent months in hospital recovering.
It wasn’t until 2011 that John was found guilty of the murder of Halstead and of Paula Fields, a single mother with whom he had also had a relationship.
Where is Delia Balmer now?
ITV
Today, Delia is working as a therapeutic masseuse.
As she told ITV, John Sweeney left her changed forever. “I am a perfectionist but my life is opposite of perfect,” she said. “I often suffer from depression and anxiety, afraid of life and afraid of the future, a compulsive worrier. When I look in the mirror I see a stranger. Certain physical pain, I will have for life. I am stuck. I cannot move on, and cannot go further. Fear holds me back from doing certain things. I live for travel, but it is has also become almost my only escape from reality. Ballet classes have always been an important part of my life.”
Since collaborating with ITV on the show, Delia has apparently changed for the better. “It’s a regular thing now that my wife and I take Delia out to a Greek restaurant in London,” said show creator Nick Steven to The Guardian. “She is a different person to the one I met two or three years ago. It seems to have been a positive for her. You might expect someone who has been through all that to be tearful with moments of gloomy introspection. But there’s none of that.”
