A German gay cannibal who killed and ate a man he met on the internet has been sentenced to life in prison for murder today after a judge ordered a retrial deeming his earlier sentence too lenient.
Armin Meiwes, 44, was initially only found guilty of manslaughter after killing Bernd Juergen Brandes, 43, in 2004, on the basis that his victim was a willing partner.
Meiwes was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, but after prosecutors in his retrial warned he had a “fetish for human flesh” and could re-offend, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
The defendant’s lawyer admitted to the Berlin court that his client had a fetish for human flesh but insisted he posed no threat to society.
Miewes claims the act was consensual, he had placed an advert on the internet stating, “If you are between 18 and 25 years old you are my boy. Come to me and I eat your horny flesh.”
Brandes responded to the advert and the pair met in March 2001 to have sex before Meiwes cut off his victim’s penis, cooked it and attempted to eat it. He then chopped up, froze and later ate the rest of Brande’s body.