Sales Agent 'Chopped Up Man And Cooked Head'

The Berlin Regional court has heard the bizarre case of a 45-year-old sales agent who cut up a 37-year-old man and cooked his head. Prosecutors demanded that the man be sentenced to 6 years and 9 months for manslaughter, but his defence team argued that he was only guilty of bodily harm.

The case, reported in the Local, began when the 37-year-old visited his older guest’s apartment in Marienfelde in south Berlin in January 2012 to fulfil his extreme sexual fantasies.

Inside the flat the younger man asked to be tied to the bed. He then asked to have his nose and mouth covered with tape. It is not clear how he died but it is believed to have been either suffocation or an overdose of painkillers. Once he died the accused cut up his body and cooked his head. 

This latest trial is the second attempt by prosecutors to convict him of a crime. In the first trial he was accused of murder but the charge was dropped because the defence argued that the man wanted to die and therefore the killer was merely a tool in that suicidal aim.

In the end he was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison for assault resulting in death in the first trial, but that sentence was overturned after a successful appeal in the Federal Supreme Court. The final judgement is due on June 26th.

The case has proved difficult to prosecute because crimes of this kind are incredibly rare and hard to define.

Berlin is well known for its gay fetish scene with a number of clubs offering a variety of unusual dress codes and facilities. It is unknown whether the men visited any such places.