'Canal killer telling smokescreen of lies'

A carpenter accused of chopping up two of his lovers and dumping the body parts in canals in London and Holland is "a very guilty man telling calculated and deliberate lies", a court heard today.

John Sweeney, 54, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murdering 33-year-old Melissa Halstead in 1990 and Paula Fields, 31, 10 years later.

He was only charged with the murders last April following a joint Anglo-Dutch investigation. Sweeney has claimed that he is being framed by police who have coached witnesses and fabricated evidence.

But prosecutor Brian Altman QC, making his closing speech to the jury, said that Sweeney had shown "his true aggressive and abusive self". He said: "This is a man who could hardly give an answer to a straight question. It is a smokescreen, an attempt to blind you from the obvious. This is a man who displays low cunning."

Jurors have heard Sweeney is serving a life sentence for attempting to murder a third girlfriend with an axe in 1994. He went on the run after the attack on Delia Balmer but was arrested after the discovery of Ms Field's body in a Camden canal in 2001.

Sweeney denies two counts of murder and one of perverting the course of justice by disposing of the body of Ms Fields. The trial continues.