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25. 01. 12. - 13:00

Cannibalism Suspected In Berlin

Police in Berlin have arrested a suspected cannibal killer who murdered a city bank worker and cooked his head on the top of the stove.

Carsten Schmidt, 37, vanished in the German capital on New Year's Eve.  On Monday he was found in pieces in the flat of pervert Michael Schneider, 43, who attempted to kill himself in the moments before police broke down the door.

The victim's body parts were found strewn around the apartment wrapped in baking foil and paper.  Police say the men knew each other and believe that Schmidt wanted to help his friend out of financial difficulties.

"It was a horror show," said a police official.  "The body parts had been sawed, hacked and sliced.  He put them all over the apartment as if saving them up for a rainy day.  But only the head was cooked, bobbing in a stewpot on top of the cooker."

Detectives believe he went to his apartment on December 31 with a sum of money that Schneider believed was not enough.  Police believe that a "sexual motive" lay behind the killing which happened within minutes of Schmidt arriving.

Schmidt, who was gay, was due to go on to a party that evening with his friend who alerted the police.  As enquiries led them to the gruesome apartment Schneider slashed his wrists with a knife but his life was saved by an emergency medic.

He lies under guard in hospital charged with murder.  He will be quizzed about whether he ate parts of his victim when he has fully recovered from his suicide attempt.

Cannibalism as a sexual practice is widespread in Germany.  It first hit the headlines in 2001 when Armin Meiwes killed, butchered and ate a computer technician called Bernd Brandes at his remote farmhouse home in Rotenburg near Kassel.

At his trial several men who harboured fantasies of eating human flesh, or being eaten themselves, testified to the court that there was a large network of like-minded individuals in society who connected through cyberspace to try to satisfy their fantasies.

German Herald

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