Meet the Psychopaths, Channel 5 - TV review: The story of psycho-killer Joanna Dennehy was the most horrific

She loved the narcissistic element of being at the centre of a murder investigation

Daisy Wyatt
Tuesday 08 December 2015 23:56 GMT
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Deadly disorder: serial killer Joanna Dennehy was among the extreme personalities profiled
Deadly disorder: serial killer Joanna Dennehy was among the extreme personalities profiled

Chances are you have already met a psychopath. The work place is teeming with them. You may have watched a manipulative boss climb the greasy pole through nothing more than superficial charm and a total lack of sincerity, you may even have been unfortunate enough to have worked for one.

But not every “boss from hell” is a psychopath, even if their behaviour is morally questionable. Only one in a hundred people truly qualify, according to Channel 5's Meet the Psychopaths. They are more likely to have inflicted harm on animals as children or enjoyed using fire arms in adolescence.

Cue the dramatic music, blood-splattered reconstructions and foreboding narration that have come to typify “The Channel 5 Documentary”. But in this case the pulsating soundtrack and scaremongering case studies didn't seem so out of place, making the first episode of this three-part series a slick shock-doc.

The story of psycho-killer Joanna Dennehy was the most horrific. In the words of one witness, the mother-of-two “went medieval” on an unsuspecting dog walker, stabbing him 30 times during a cold-blooded killing rampage.

Her lack of remorse was also astounding. Video footage showed her flirting with a police woman after being taken into custody. She loved the narcissistic element of being at the centre of a murder investigation, according to Professor Anthony Madden.

Tell-tale signs of her psychopathy began to develop during her twenties, when she would leave her family and “bugger off” for weeks on end. When she was at home and her toddler daughter screamed, she would put her outside to cry in the buggy alone on the street. Just be thankful you never had to work for her.

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