Canadian porn actor Luka Magnotta guilty of murdering and dismembering Chinese student

Luka Magnotta posted his victim’s body parts to schools and political parties

Luka Magnotta was convicted of first-degree murder (REUTERS/Montreal Police/Handout/files )

A Canadian man who killed and dismembered a Chinese student in Montreal and posted his victim’s body parts to schools and political parties around the country was found guilty of first-degree murder today.

Luka Magnotta was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2012 killing of Jun Lin after eight days of jury deliberations. The sentence carries the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Magnotta, 32, was also found guilty of committing an indignity to a human body, publishing and mailing obscene material, and criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament.

Magnotta had admitted killing and dismembering engineering student Lin, 33, but pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental illness. His lawyer argued he was schizophrenic and couldn't tell right from wrong at the time of the killing.

The prosecution countered the crime was both planned and deliberate and that Magnotta's behaviour and actions were not those of an insane person.

After the verdicts were announced, a lawyer read out an impact statement on behalf of Lin's father, Diran Lin, who travelled to Montreal from China and watched proceedings throughout the trial from a private room in the courthouse.

"I had come to see your trial system to see justice done and I leave satisfied that you have not let my son down," lawyer Daniel Urbas told the emotionally charged room.

"I had come to see remorse, to hear some form of apology, and I leave without anything."

The case shocked Canadians and quickly gained international notoriety when body parts arrived at the offices of Canada's biggest political parties and a video appeared online that prosecutors say shows Magnotta stabbing and having sex with the dismembered corpse.

Magnotta fled to Europe following the killing and, after an international manhunt, was caught in a Berlin internet cafe, where he was reportedly found reading about himself.

Lin was born in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. He had been living in Canada since 2011. At the time of his death Lin was enrolled as a computer engineering student at Concordia University.