I Asked Cannibal To Eat Me, Says Would-Be Victim

Dec. 16, 2003
By Kate Connolly in Kassel

A London-based hotel worker told a German court yesterday how he was chained to a bed by a self-confessed cannibal and had his body marked out for butchery before changing his mind and being released.

Dirk Moller, 27, a conference organiser for an international chain, described his encounter with Armin Meiwes, 42, who is on trial for killing and eating a man.

Mr Moller and Meiwes, a computer expert, met via the internet and confessed their cannibalistic tendencies to each other in regular emails, court sources said after the hearing in Kassel, which was held in private. The pair finally came face to face at a hotel after Mr Moller outlined his desire to be killed and eaten by Meiwes.

"He wanted to be sentenced to death," Meiwes had told the three judges. "So I printed out a death sentence for him."

They met in the Etap hotel in Mannheim, western Germany, two years ago, months after Meiwes killed and ate 43-year-old Bernd Jurgen Brandes at his house in Rothenburg, after advertising for willing victims on the internet. He videotaped the act.

Meiwes argues that Mr Brandes was a willing victim.

Mr Moller told the court that after he arrived at the hotel from London, they went to a McDonald's before going back to the hotel where they undressed.

According to Meiwes, Mr Moller "wanted to be chained to the bed" at which point he stuck pins in his body, marking out his liver, kidney and other organs. They had agreed these were to be cut out for consumption.

Then they went to the cinema. On their return, Meiwes showed the hotel worker a video of a previous would-be victim, Jorg Bose, whom he had strung up in a slaughter parlour at his house.

At that point Mr Moller got cold feet, and, according to Meiwes's lawyer, "decided the fantasy was enough, reality too much".

"He watched it, and said to me, 'You can do this but not that'," Meiwes had told the court. Realising Mr Moller's reluctance, Meiwes backed down from killing him.

Mr Moller, who sat next to a witness-protection officer, spoke only to confirm his name, age and profession before saying he wanted his evidence heard in camera.

Earlier, a police officer told the court that Mr Moller was one of Meiwes's more regular of about 200 email contacts.

Mr Bose, one of several other would-be victims, appeared in court wearing skiing goggles and a baseball cap with ear flaps to avoid being recognised. The 34-year-old cook, from Villingen, in southern Germany, is reported to have told the court - also in camera - that he had lost the courage to be cannibalised, despite agreeing to the act.

Meiwes's lawyer said Mr Bose confirmed Meiwes's previous testimony, that the cook was "strung up" on a pulley but was taken down because he felt queasy.

"I lifted him down," Meiwes said. "His ankles hurt. We tried again. I put on my steel-capped boots and taped it on video. I found the video particularly beautiful."

It was after watching this video that Mr Moller retracted his offer to be a victim.

The lawyer stressed that Meiwes had not forced any of his victims, an argument he hopes will help his client escape a murder conviction.

"In the case of Mr Bose, he was hanging from the ceiling, naked," he said. "My client could have done anything he wanted but he got him down as he wished. He put his trust in my client and he was not disappointed".

Mr Ermel said Meiwes, a former soldier, believed that he was now cured of his cannibal desires.

The trial continues.

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/16/wcann16.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/16/ixworld.html/news/2003/12/16/wcann16.xml