The retrial began on 12 January 2006, where prosecutors questioned the actual reasoning for Brandes’ killing as being a way to satisfy Meiwes' own sexual desires, rather than obliging Brandes his request. Their argument was that he should have been convicted of murder, not manslaughter, and been given a life sentence. It also proved problematic for German lawyers who discovered that cannibalism is in fact legal in Germany and subsequently charged Meiwes with murder for the purposes of sexual pleasure and with 'disturbing the peace of the dead'.At the trial, 19 minutes of the video showing key moments of the crime was shown to the court, after reporters and the public were removed.Only a year later, in April 2005, a German court ordered that there should be a retrial, after prosecutors appealed Meiwes' sentence as being too lenient.
He was convicted in 2013 in what many called a “thought crime”, since he was punished for thoughts instead of actions.On 30 January 2004, Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.The case attracted considerable media attention and started a debate over whether Meiwes could be convicted at all, due to the fact that Brandes had voluntarily taken part in the cannibalism and had entered Meiwes' house fully aware of his intentions. He described in chats how he was going to tie her feet together and “have fun” watching blood gush out of her throat after he slit it. It was then discovered that Valle had been discussing a plan in explicit detail to torture, murder, and cannibalize his wife, as well as more than 100 other women. His then-wife, Kathleen Mangan, had called police after she found her husband had been consistently on the Dark Fetish Net, a fetish website dedicated to chatrooms dealing with sexual fetishes and real-life fantasies. While in prison Meiwes admitted to still having fantasies about devouring flesh to a psychologist, during his second trial, which probably aided his second conviction.Īcross the ocean, Gilberto Valle, otherwise known as the Cannibal Cop, was arrested on Octoand charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Yet, the German court ordered a retrial after prosecutors appealed his sentence to then convict him of murder in May of 2006, where he received as life sentence.
On camera and through email exchanges, Brandes repeatedly expressed his consent to the act, so the question centered around if what Meiwes really did was murder.Īrmin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter in 2004, even though many thought he should be convicted of a Killing on Request (assisted suicide) at the very least.
#ARMIN MEIWES VIDEO STILLS TRIAL#
After searching his home, law enforcement discovered the videotape, but during trial the courts had an interesting problem. Meiwes was arrested in December of 2002, when posts about the incident were seen online and the police tracked them to him. But, it still takes several hours for Brandes to die and when he does the video then disturbingly depicts Meiwes hanging Brandes by a hook to remove pieces of flesh that he later consumes over the following weeks. Meiwes then draws a bath for Brandes at his request and reads a Star Trek novel to him before he falls asleep. It then becomes apparent that Brandes is too weak to bite down so Meiwes fries the two halves of the mutilated penis for their consumption. That didn’t work, so Meiwes grabbed a knife to finish the job and then tried to feed the severed parts of his own penis to Brandes. The tape, which has never been released to the public, depicts Brandes drinking alcohol and taking 20 sleeping pills before Meiwes attempted to remove his penis by biting it off. Brandes than answered Meiwes’ ad and came over to Meiwes’ house where the following events were caught on camera. The two had first met one month earlier via the Cannibal Cafe when Meiwes posted “looking for a well-built 18- to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed.
On March 9 th, 2001, a 39-year-old computer technician named Armin Meiwes met, had sex with, and subsequently killed and ate 44-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes. These types of websites explore fetishes and have chat forums where users can discuss their personal interests with each other and make connections to share pictures, videos, and even tips. After the Cannibal Cafe shut down, other cannibalistic-focused websites including the Dolcett Girls appeared, while fetish websites like the Dark Fetish Net have cannibalism as a subsect of the forums.