German cannibal details confession in retrial

A man who has admitted being a cannibal today repeated a detailed confession during a retrial triggered by prosecutors seeking a tougher sentence.

Armin Meiwes, 44, told the court the grisly details of how he killed 43-year-old Bernd Juergen Brandes at his home in the town of Rotenburg in March 2001 and later consumed the man’s body.

Meiwes could face life in prison if convicted of murder by the state court in Frankfurt which is retrying the case. The trial is scheduled to continue unil early March.

The computer technician was convicted of manslaughter in early 2004, and was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, but prosecutors appealed and said the sentence was not enough.

Federal judges overturned the original ruling last year and ordered a retrial, arguing the lower court failed to give sufficient consideration to the sexual motive behind the killing.

Meiwes said Brandes, who travelled from Berlin after answering his internet posting, wanted to be stabbed to death.