Britain: A self-confessed cannibal who killed three people, dismembering one victim and eating part of his brain, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday.
Peter Bryan (36), a paranoid schizophrenic, pleaded guilty at London's Old Bailey court to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The judge, describing the case as exceptional, told Bryan that in this case "life means the rest of your natural life".
Judge Forrester told him: "You killed . . . because it gave you a thrill and a feeling of power when you ate flesh."
Bryan had killed two men two months apart while under the care of mental health institutions in Britain. Both prosecution and defence lawyers criticised the mental health authorities in whose care he had been placed since his first killing in 1993 of a 20-year-old female student.
Bryan was sentenced for the killing of Brian Cherry (43) in February 2004, and Richard Laudwell (60), slain two months later at Broadmoor prison where Bryan was in custody for the first attack.
When police arrived at Mr Cherry's East London flat they found his corpse dismembered with part of his brain in a frying pan.
"I would have done someone else if you hadn't come along," Bryan told officers. "I wanted their souls." He later told psychologists that cannibalism was normal, a voodoo ritual that was "like eating the forbidden fruit".