Cannibal let cook off the hook
2003-12-15 15:29
Kassel - A court in Germany trying a self-confessed cannibal for murder heard evidence on Monday from a cook who allowed himself to be hung on a meat hook with choice cuts marked out on his body.
The 32-year-old chef is the first of up to five cannibal fantasists due to testify to the court trying Armin Meiwes, who has admitted killing and eating one man.
Among the others are a teacher and a pensioner, Meiwes has previously told the court in Kassel, central Germany.
The cook turned up to testify wearing a hat and dark sunglasses to protect his identity. The public was excluded while he gave evidence.
Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician, has told investigators that the cook, with whom he had been in e-mail contact for over two years, allowed him to mark edible parts of his body for carving.
After rubbing oil on him, Meiwes pulleyed him onto a meat hook specially installed in his house in Rotenburg, near Kassel.
But the cook "immediately felt cold and unwell," Meiwes told investigators, "so we stopped."
He later touched up the video he had taken of the "role play" in order "to make it look genuine."
'Too old, too fat'
The accused has already admitted in court that he met five other potential victims but did not eat them for various reasons - either they were too fat, too old, backed down or appeared unfriendly.
Meiwes insists he did not do anything against anyone's will, saying the man he ate in March 2001, 43-year-old engineer Bernd-Juergen Brandes, wanted to be killed and consumed.
Prosecutors however say he is guilty of murder for exploiting his victim's apparent death wish. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Meiwes' lawyers say he is guilty, at worst, of killing on demand, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Cannibalism itself is not a crime in Germany.
Earlier on Monday, a policeman told the court that Meiwes' work colleagues had considered him a "nice, polite and helpful person."
- AFP