World
German teacher, who killed man and ate his genitals, convicted
A court in Germany has convicted a former teacher of murdering a man, cutting up his body, and eating parts of it. The teacher, identified as 42-year-old Stefan R, has been sentenced to life in prison for the crime, carried out in 2020. The suspect had pleaded innocence in the murder case, the trial for which had begun in August.
Crime carried out for 'cannibalism fantasies'
The Berlin state court stated the suspect killed the victim to "live out his cannibalism fantasies," reports said. "Nothing like this has come across my desk before," Presiding Judge Matthias Schertz said of his three-decade-long career. "What you did was inhuman," the judge told the suspect, who reportedly stayed silent and expressionless as the judgment was read out.
The men had met on a dating portal
In 2020, the suspect had met a 43-year-old mechanic named Stefan T on an online dating platform and both agreed to meet at the former's apartment in Berlin. The convict killed the man there, cut up his body including his genitals, with the intention of eating them. He then spread parts of the body in different neighborhoods of the city.
Case came to light in November 2020
The case had first come to light in November 2020. Police officials had spent weeks searching for the missing mechanic before some human bones were found in a Berlin forest. Based on the victim's phone records, investigators were led to the suspect's address, where they found traces of blood, more human remains, and a set of suspicious work tools.
Suspect denied murder charges
However, the suspect denied the murder charges. He said the victim died of natural causes at his apartment but he did not call the police because he feared it would reveal his homosexuality. Citing these arguments, the suspect had sought his acquittal.
Other similar cases in Germany
This is not the first such case in Germany. In 2015, a former police officer was convicted of killing a man he had met through an online chat forum devoted to cannibalism. In another similar case, a man was convicted in 2006 for killing and partially eating a man he had met online. He is currently serving a life sentence.
