A German police officer has been found guilty of murder for killing a man he met on an Internet chat forum devoted to cannibalism.
The German news agency DPA reports the regional court in the eastern city of Dresden sentenced the man on Wednesday to eight years and six months in prison. Judges concluded that Detlev G., whose last name hasn’t been released, killed a 59-year-old businessman from Hannover in November 2013.
Prosecutors say the Polish-born victim had fantasized about being eaten, but there was no evidence the suspect actually did so. The defendant, who worked as a police handwriting expert, denied the murder and said the victim killed himself.
This is not the first time German courts have dealt with a case of cannibalism. In June last year a 45-year-old sales agent in Berlin was convicted of cutting up a 37-year-old man and cooking his head. Prosecutors had demanded 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.
There had been some debate in the court over whether the action had been consensual, and it was believed to have been sexually motivated.
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