The Meiwes and Brandes cannibalism case

German police have arrested a 41-year-old suspected of killing and dismembering another man he met on the internet. The suspect killed the victim by stabbing him in the throat, prosecutors said. He allegedly chopped the body into pieces, deep-froze parts of it and buried the rest. He later ate much of the flesh

I really wonder about that video! Will we see it? I doubt it.

'Meiwes said of the penis severing "It was important to him that his member be cut off and that he witness it. It gave him pleasure." '

'I sought more volunteers to eat' says cannibal

A German computer expert who has confessed to killing and eating a man he ate on the internet has told his murder trial he sought more volunteers.

Armin Meiwes, 42, told the state court in Kassel he looked for willing victims through internet adverts and chat rooms.

He made the enquiries after the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old engineer Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home.

He testified that he had e-mail contact with a person using the pseudonym "Albineu" who had volunteered.

Meiwes went on trial last Wednesday, offering a detailed confession.

His victim, he testified, said he wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

The defendant has said he stabbed Brandes the next morning, believing he was already dead, and recorded his act on a videotape.

He said today he had been "disappointed" in some aspects, telling the court that "Bernd was not 36, as he claimed" and hadn't wanted to spend more time getting to know him.

After Meiwes finished testifying, the five-judge panel removed the public from the courtroom as it viewed excerpts from the tape.

Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated and filed murder charges, despite concluding that the killing had the victim's consent.

Meiwes could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Meiwes's lawyer argues that the death was instead a form of mercy killing - which would carry a maximum five-year sentence. A verdict is expected in February.

Germany's self-confessed cannibal killer Armin Meiwes has been sent a vegetarian cookbook and a Christmas hamper full of veggie burgers and tofu.

Animals rights group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is behind the stunt and says it would be a major coup if it could convert Meiwes to vegetarianism.

Meiwes is on trial for killing, dismembering and eating the flesh of another man.

He has admitted killing and eating his victim, but denies it was murder. Peta is hoping the mouth-watering recipes in the book and the hamper of vegetarian foods will persuade him to mend his ways.

The vegetarian starter kit was sent to Meiwes' prison cell in the town of Kassel, where the trial is taking place.

Peta spokesman Juergen Faulmann said: "What this man did to a German computer expert is done to other creatures every day.

"The cruel scenario of slaughtering, cutting up, portioning, freezing and eating of body parts is the grim reality for more than 450 million sentient individuals that are killed in this country every year."

"People who eat meat feel disgusted by human flesh. Vegetarians feel disgusted by any sort of meat."

Moeller said his fantasies to be killed and butchered evaporated

Cannibal is sane court told

A German who confessed to killing a man and eating his flesh is in good mental health, but should be given psychotherapy, according to a prison psychiatrist who testified at his murder trial.

Armin Meiwes, 42, lacks empathy and self-control but should be considered healthy, said Heinrich Wilmer.

He said said Meiwes needs psychotherapy, but did not need to be kept in a psychiatric institute.

Meiwes went on trial in Kassel earlier this month and confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old engineer Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home.

He told the court that he subsequently looked for further willing victims through Internet adverts and chat rooms.

Wilmer declined to comment on whether he believed Meiwes might reoffend.

Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated and filed murder charges, despite concluding that the killer had the victim's consent. Meiwes faces life in prison if convicted.

Meiwes' lawyer argues that it was a form of mercy killing, which would carry a maximum five year sentence. A verdict is expected in February.

Police tracked down and arrested Meiwes after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement Meiwes had placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.

The German cannibal who confessed to killing a man and eating his flesh is incapable of showing "warm and tender feelings" towards other people, but is not mentally ill, a court heard.

Armin Meiwes, 42, has a "schizoid personality" and difficulty in forming relationships, psychiatrist Georg Stolpmann told the state court in Kassel.

He said: "What we have here is an inability to have warm and tender feelings towards others. There is no indication of mental illness."

He said Meiwes is fully fit to face trial - an assessment shared by other experts who have testified.

Mr Stolpmann described Meiwes as a "calm and balanced" prisoner who enjoyed the publicity he was getting.

When his murder trial opened last month, Meiwes confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home.

Brandes, who had travelled from Berlin after answering his advert, wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness, Meiwes testified. Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated and filed murder charges against Meiwes despite concluding that the killer had the victim's consent.

If convicted of murder, Meiwes could face life in prison. But his attorney argues that it was a form of mercy killing which would carry a maximum five year sentence.

Meiwes has told the court that following Brandes' death, he looked for further willing victims through internet ads and chatrooms.

Police tracked down and arrested him after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement Meiwes had placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten. A verdict in the trial is expected next Friday.

The German cannibal who confessed to killing a man and eating his flesh is incapable of showing "warm and tender feelings" towards other people, but is not mentally ill, a court heard.

The German cannibal who confessed to killing a man he met over the internet and eating his flesh has told his murder trial judges: "I had my big kick and I don't need to do it again."

In his closing statement Armin Meiwes, 42, also stated his victim "came to me of his own free will to end his life. For him, it was a nice death."

Miewes, who is expecting a verdict on Friday, said. "I regret it all very much, but I can't undo it."

Prosecutor Marcus Koehler said Meiwes should spend life behind bars for murder.

He said he acted simply to "satisfy a sexual impulse" and filmed himself dismembering the victim before he ate him so he could "admire himself as a human butcher."

Meiwes, Mr Koehler said, considered eating his victim as a kind of twisted "communion."

Defence lawyer Harald Ermel argued that the death was "homicide on demand" - a form of mercy killing - because the victim had given his consent to be killed and eaten. That would carry a maximum five year prison sentence.

When his trial opened last month at the state court in the central city of Kassel, Meiwes confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home in the nearby town of Rotenburg.

He said Brandes, who travelled from Berlin after answering Meiwes' internet postings, wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness.

A grisly video Meiwes made of the act was shown to the court in a closed session earlier in the trial. A doctor testified that Brandes died from loss of blood and that the medication, along with a half-bottle of liquor and 20 sleeping pills he took beforehand, could not have lessened his pain.

A German cannibal who confessed to killing, dismembering and eating another man has been sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for manslaughter.

Armin Meiwes was cleared of murder. The verdict brings to a close one of the most macabre court cases in recent Germany history.

He had admitted killing and eating engineer Bend-Juergen Brandes, but said his victim had consented to his own gruesome death.

The jury heard how Meiwes met Brandes after advertising on the internet for "young men for real slaughter and consumption".

The pair ate the engineer's penis before Meiwes carved the body into pieces, stored 66 pounds of flesh in a freezer and buried bones and the skull in the garden, the court heard.

On the second day of the trial, the court viewed three 90-minute home videos showing the March 10, 2001 death, dissection and consumption of Brandes.

Meiwes told the 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.

The court also heard how the 42-year-old computer technician was trying to find a second person to eat after devouring his first victim.

Cannibal guilty of manslaughter. In other news, German prison population expected to fall in next 10 years