German cannibal judged sane
2003-12-29 16:07
Kassel - A self-confessed German cannibal needed an intensive "kick" to stimulate his emotions and found it in eating human flesh, a psychiatrist testified on Monday at his trial for murder.
The expert, Heinrich Wilmer, told the court Armin Meiwes had a personality disorder, probably influenced by his father abandoning his family when he was still young, but was otherwise physically and mentally sound.
Nevertheless, he was immature and showed little feeling for others, and his reaction to his murder trial and the intense media coverage was "like a child excited by Father Christmas", said Wilmer.
The psychiatrist said Meiwes was an emotionless figure who only managed to develop "loose" relationships with other people and needed a kick to stimulate his feelings.
The 42-year-old computer technician has admitted killing and partly eating another man, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes, whom he claims was a willing victim.
They met after Meiwes placed an advertisement on the Internet for somebody willing to be killed, carved up and consumed.
'Fulfilment of a long-running dream'
Meiwes placed his first adverts out of a mixture "of farce and madness", but soon became deadly serious, Wilmer told the court in Kassel, central Germany.
The motive was less sexual than the fulfilment of a long-running "dream" to have someone who would never leave him, a desire no doubt shaped by the early disappearance of his father.
Meiwes denies murder, insisting Brandes, 43, consented to his own death on March 10, 2001 and later consumption, all filmed on home-made video.
Meiwes's lawyers say he is guilty at worst of "killing on demand," punishable by up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors are pressing for a verdict of murder which carries a life sentence. Cannibalism, itself, is not a crime in Germany.
The court heard earlier on Monday from a former girlfriend of Meiwes, although her evidence was taken in private.
Meiwes' lawyer, Harald Ermel, told reporters his client was now involved in a new relationship.
A verdict is due as early as next month.