(CNN) — A German man who carried out a murder with “cannibal motives” was sentenced to life imprisonment by a regional court in Berlin.
Stefan R, reportedly a 42-year-old teacher by CNN affiliate ZDF, was also found guilty and sentenced for disturbing the peace of the dead, following the murder of a 43-year-old man in the defendant’s apartment in September. 2020, the court said.
The court said that Stefan R had killed his victim to “obtain sexual gratification” through the act and the intention to consume parts of the corpse afterwards.
According to the court’s findings, the two men had agreed to meet at the defendant’s apartment in Berlin after coming into contact via an online dating platform. At the apartment, Stefan R is said to have sedated the victim, killed him, and then cut off his genitals to eat.
It could not be determined with certainty whether the defendant actually carried out this particular intention, but the court said it was “likely.”
CNN affiliate NTV reported that the prosecutor’s office previously said that Stefan R “lured the man into a trap,” had repeatedly raised the issue of cannibalism in conversations with other sexual partners, and “wanted to make his fantasies come true.”
The defendant is also said to have dismembered the victim’s body and deposited the parts around Pankow, a district of the German capital.
According to NTV, the victim’s bones were found weeks after the murder occurred.
After questioning several witnesses and evaluating the accused, the court concluded that the accused had acted for “cannibalistic motives” and, since Stefan R was found guilty of a “particularly serious crime”, according to the court, he will not be able to be released. Automatic conditional after serving 15 years in Germany.
The verdict is not final and can still be appealed.
Is it’s not the first time that Germany is affected by a case of cannibalism. In 2006, Armin Meiwes was convicted of murdering and eating a man he had met online after posting an advertisement seeking someone willing to be consumed and eaten.
In 2015, a German police officer was convicted of murdering and massacring a man he had met on an online cannibalism forum.