Serial Killer Wives

This is the shocking true story of Martyn, ex-partner of notorious serial killer and necrophile Dennis Nilsen, who murdered at least twelve young men and boys in London between 1978 and 1983 before being sentenced to life in prison.

After running away from home aged 14, Martyn became a sex worker in London's West End. During this time, he met Nilsen in an arcade. They ended up at Nilsen's flat where Martyn fell asleep, only to wake in a room full of smoke, Nilsen looming over him with a knife. He pushed him off and left, confused by what had happened.

During the next few months, young men began to go missing from the West End. Martyn and Nilsen bumped into each other again and went back to Nilsen's flat, where they talked and bonded over their troubled upbringings. They began a casual relationship which would last for years.

Nilsen's behaviour became increasingly bizarre. He would shout at walls and ask Martyn sinister questions like whether he'd ever thought about bathing in blood. Martyn turned down Nilsen's invitation to move in with him.

One day, Martyn visited Nilsen at his new flat in Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, where he noticed a foul smell which Nilsen blamed on his dog. On another visit, he was denied entry by a clearly panicked Nilsen, who wouldn't let him through the front door.

Shortly after, Nilsen's neighbours complained about noxious odours coming from the drains. When a plumber investigated, he made a horrific discovery: human flesh and bones. The source was identified as Nilsen's flat and he was immediately arrested.

Martyn recalls the moment he saw reports on TV that his boyfriend had been arrested for murder, and how he struggled to cope with finding out the details of Nilsen's gruesome crimes, including storing bodies in his flat, having sexual encounters with his dead victims, dismembering them, boiling their flesh and flushing them down the toilet. Martyn also began to realise how close he came to becoming Nilsen's very first victim on the night they met.

Now, after decades of torment following his relationship with Nilsen, Martyn works as a counsellor for a mental health charity, using his traumatic experiences to help others.