The 31-year-old had been expected to deny the brutal knife murders of three men and dumping their bodies in ditches before being formally sent for trial.
Instead she shocked the court, including her own defence team, by confessing to the serial killings – and the attempted murder of two other men.
Dennehy, who has a green star tattoo below her right eye, took officials by surprise when she insisted: “I’ve pleaded guilty and that’s that.”
She also strongly objected when her lawyers asked for a delay to check that she really
wanted to plead guilty.
Her startled barrister, Mr Nigel Lickley QC, told the court: “The course of the arraignment is not one we had anticipated.
“We ask for more time given what has just occurred
But Dennehy was adamant that she wanted no further discussion.
She interrupted her counsel, saying: “I’m not coming back down here again just to say the same stuff.
"It’s a long way to come to say the same thing I have just said.”
But Mr Lickley continued his request to the judgeHe said: “It is incumbent on us to inform the court whether the pleas will be maintained or changed and to that end arrangements have been made to see Miss Dennehy hopefully on Friday this week.”
He added: “If that is possible we will be able to inform the court on Monday.”
Judge Mr Justice Sweeney said: “She has pleaded guilty to a large number of counts, clearly intentionally.
“In the circumstances if there is to be any application for a change then I will consider it – but otherwise she has pleaded guilty.”.
He ordered that Dennehy’s defence team notify the court by Monday if there is to be any retraction of her guilty pleas.
Dennehy, who wore a white shirt as she sat in the dock, admitted the murders of property developer Kevin Lee, 48, Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, and John Chapman, 56.
She also confessed to three counts of preventing the lawful burial of all three victims, and to the attempted murders of Robin Bereza and John Rogers.
The court heard Mr Lee died of stab wounds to the chest. He was found in a ditch in Newborough, Cambs, on March 30.
Mr Slaboszewski was stabbed in the heart, while Mr Chapman was stabbed in the neck and chest.
Their bodies were found by a passer-by around 10 miles away in a ditch at Thorney Dyke, on April 3.
Following the killings police launched a nationwide appeal to find Dennehy, who lived in nearby Peterborough.
Det Chief Insp Martin Brunning, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, described her as having a “very distinctive” appearance
Dennehy appeared yesterday alongside her boyfriend Gary Stretch, 47, who stands 7ft 3in tall and is also known as Gary Richards.
He denied the two attempted murders – said to have happened on April 2.
He also pleaded not guilty to helping Dennehy dispose of the three bodies.
Two other defendants appeared at the hearing by videolink.
Leslie Layton, 36, denies two counts of preventing a lawful burial and one charge of perverting the course of justice. Robert Moore, 55, denies two counts of assisting an The three defendants, all from Peterborough, are expected to go on trial in January. Dennehy is due to be sentenced at a later date
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