A German man accused of killing, dismembering and eating the flesh of another man who he met through the internet went on trial for murder today.
Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer technician, admits stabbing Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, 43, to death and partially eating him at his home in Rothenburg, Germany. Meiwes is alleged to have advertised on the internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed.
He told a German newspaper that Brandes answered the advert and went voluntarily to Meiwes' home, where he agreed to let Meiwes cut his penis off. Meiwes then cooked it and served it up for them to eat together.
He says he then stabbed Brandes through the neck, chopped his body into pieces, deep-froze parts of it and buried the rest. He captured the whole process on a videotape that is forming a key part of the prosecution's evidence.