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Cannibal's confession shocks court
German trolled Internet looking for willing victim
Eating 20 kg of flesh `like taking communion'
KASSEL, Germany—A German computer expert confessed yesterday to killing and eating a willing victim, telling a shocked courtroom the experience was "like taking communion" in a religious service.
Armin Meiwes, 42, who lived in a former manor house in Rotenburg, some 35 kilometres southeast of this central German town, gave chilling testimony at the start of his murder trial about how his fantasy of finding someone to become "a part of me" turned real.
Meiwes, a poised, slender man wearing a dark suit and tie, described matter-of-factly how Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, travelled from Berlin to visit him in March, 2001, after replying to an Internet ad seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption."
In testimony so frank it drew gasps from the public gallery, Meiwes said he'd kept his victim's skull and plastic bags of flesh in his freezer. He ate about 20 kg of the flesh, defrosting it bit by bit.
"With every piece of flesh I ate I remembered him," the bespectacled, well-spoken Meiwes told the judge. "It was like taking communion."
Meiwes said his cannibalistic fantasies began as a child when, living alone with a dominant mother, he imagined killing and eating a "younger brother."
Using the pseudonym "Franky," he posted Internet ads saying: "If you are 18-25 you are my boy" or "Come to me I'll eat your delicious flesh."
More than 400 people responded, among them Brandes, a 43-year-old Berlin computer specialist.
Meiwes invited him to his elegant home Rotenburg. When they met, he said, Brandes undressed. "Now you can see my body. I hope you'll find me tasty," Meiwes quoted him as saying.
"He told me he had had the desire since he was a child to be slaughtered and eaten," he said. "He was very intelligent and I didn't see any sign that he was disturbed."
Meiwes killed him with a kitchen knife in a "slaughtering room" he'd built containing meat hooks, a cage and a butcher's table, and filmed the killing.
Defence lawyers have said the video shows Meiwes cutting off the victim's penis at the latter's request.
"It was important to him that his member be cut off and that he witness it," Meiwes said.
"He screamed terribly and jumped around the table but after a while he said he was surprised it didn't hurt and was very pleased that the wound bled so strongly," he added.
"It gave him pleasure."
Eventually the victim — who said he wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine — lost consciousness. Meiwes killed him with a knife, hung up the corpse and cut it up.
"My friend enjoyed the dying, his death," Meiwes recently told a local newspaper.
Germany has no laws against cannibalism, and prosecutors were forced to employ a little-used murder statute to charge Meiwes. They concede the victim wanted to be killed, but argue he was incapable of rational thought.
Seeking to bolster his claim that he acted according to the wishes of others, Meiwes testified he had at least five other respondents to his Internet ads visit his home but let them go — including a teacher who offered himself as a "devoted pig for slaughter."
Thirty-eight witnesses are expected to testify in the trial.
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...190&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
German trolled Internet looking for willing victim
Eating 20 kg of flesh `like taking communion'
KASSEL, Germany—A German computer expert confessed yesterday to killing and eating a willing victim, telling a shocked courtroom the experience was "like taking communion" in a religious service.
Armin Meiwes, 42, who lived in a former manor house in Rotenburg, some 35 kilometres southeast of this central German town, gave chilling testimony at the start of his murder trial about how his fantasy of finding someone to become "a part of me" turned real.
Meiwes, a poised, slender man wearing a dark suit and tie, described matter-of-factly how Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, travelled from Berlin to visit him in March, 2001, after replying to an Internet ad seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption."
In testimony so frank it drew gasps from the public gallery, Meiwes said he'd kept his victim's skull and plastic bags of flesh in his freezer. He ate about 20 kg of the flesh, defrosting it bit by bit.
"With every piece of flesh I ate I remembered him," the bespectacled, well-spoken Meiwes told the judge. "It was like taking communion."
Meiwes said his cannibalistic fantasies began as a child when, living alone with a dominant mother, he imagined killing and eating a "younger brother."
Using the pseudonym "Franky," he posted Internet ads saying: "If you are 18-25 you are my boy" or "Come to me I'll eat your delicious flesh."
More than 400 people responded, among them Brandes, a 43-year-old Berlin computer specialist.
Meiwes invited him to his elegant home Rotenburg. When they met, he said, Brandes undressed. "Now you can see my body. I hope you'll find me tasty," Meiwes quoted him as saying.
"He told me he had had the desire since he was a child to be slaughtered and eaten," he said. "He was very intelligent and I didn't see any sign that he was disturbed."
Meiwes killed him with a kitchen knife in a "slaughtering room" he'd built containing meat hooks, a cage and a butcher's table, and filmed the killing.
Defence lawyers have said the video shows Meiwes cutting off the victim's penis at the latter's request.
"It was important to him that his member be cut off and that he witness it," Meiwes said.
"He screamed terribly and jumped around the table but after a while he said he was surprised it didn't hurt and was very pleased that the wound bled so strongly," he added.
"It gave him pleasure."
Eventually the victim — who said he wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine — lost consciousness. Meiwes killed him with a knife, hung up the corpse and cut it up.
"My friend enjoyed the dying, his death," Meiwes recently told a local newspaper.
Germany has no laws against cannibalism, and prosecutors were forced to employ a little-used murder statute to charge Meiwes. They concede the victim wanted to be killed, but argue he was incapable of rational thought.
Seeking to bolster his claim that he acted according to the wishes of others, Meiwes testified he had at least five other respondents to his Internet ads visit his home but let them go — including a teacher who offered himself as a "devoted pig for slaughter."
Thirty-eight witnesses are expected to testify in the trial.
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...190&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
