'Cannibal' on murder charge

A man who confessed to eating parts of his victim and then killing him to satisfy his sexual cravings was charged with murder yesterday in what is believed to be the first recorded case of ritualised cannibalism in Europe.

A man who confessed to eating parts of his victim and then killing him to satisfy his sexual cravings was charged with murder yesterday in what is believed to be the first recorded case of ritualised cannibalism in Europe.

The accused, a 41-year-old known as the "Rotenburg cannibal", is alleged to have killed a 43-year-old man in March 2001, apparently with the victim's consent. State prosecutors in the central German city of Kassel said he had also been charged with "disturbing the peace of the deceased". The case caused a sensation last year when the accused, whose identity has been kept secret by the courts, was arrested and subsequently confessed to filming the murder.

"The accused murdered to satisfy his sexual craving," Hans-Manfred Jung, the chief prosecutor, said. "It was important for him to dismember a human being in order to later eat him."The prosecution said the accused's victim had volunteered to be murdered after the men had made contact through the internet. After setting up his video camera, the 41-year-old man cut off his victim's penis, killed him and then cut the body into pieces which he stored in the deep freeze of his apartment.

Mr Jungs said the accused had used more than 400 internet advertisements, addresses and chat forums "to find someone who could fulfil his desire to kill and eat a human being". A trial date has not been set.