Cannibal 'incapable of tender feelings'

The German cannibal who confessed to killing a man and eating his flesh is incapable of showing “warm and tender feelings” toward other people, but is not mentally ill, a court heard today.

Armin Meiwes, 42, has a “schizoid personality” and difficulty in forming relationships, psychiatrist Georg Stolpmann told the state court in Kassel.

“What we have here is an inability to have warm and tender feelings toward others,” Stolpmann said. But, he added, “there is no indication of mental illness” and Meiwes is fully fit to face trial – an assessment shared by other experts who have testified.

Stolpmann described Meiwes as a “calm and balanced” prison inmate who enjoyed the publicity he was getting.

When his murder trial opened last month, Meiwes confessed in detail to the March 2001 killing of 43-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home.

Brandes, who had travelled from Berlin after answering his advert, wanted to be stabbed to death after drinking a bottle of cold medicine to lose consciousness, Meiwes testified.

Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated and filed murder charges against Meiwes despite concluding that the killer had the victim’s consent.

If convicted of murder, Meiwes could face life in prison. But his attorney argues that it was a form of mercy killing, which would carry a maximum five year sentence.

Meiwes has told the court that following Brandes’ death, he looked for further willing victims through Internet ads and chat rooms.

Police tracked down and arrested him after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement Meiwes had placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.

A verdict in the trial is expected next Friday.