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(CNN) -
A Spanish citizen was sentenced to 15 years and five months in prison for killing and eating his mother in the apartment they shared in Madrid, Spain.
Alberto Sánchez Gómez killed his mother, cut off her body and ate her for a period of at least 15 days in early 2019, according to a statement from the Provincial Court of Madrid, published on Tuesday.
His mother, who was not named in the court statement, has been identified by local media as María Soledad Gómez.
Sánchez, now 28, was arrested in February 2019 and his trial began in April.
He was sentenced to 15 years for murder and five months for the desecration of a corpse.
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He will also have to pay 60,000 euros (about $ 73,000) to his brother in compensation, the court ruled, which rejected the defense allegation that Sánchez was "psychologically disturbed."
The death of the victim
Agents found the victim's remains in Tupperware boxes, Spain's national police tweeted at the time of his arrest.
They had not seen María Gómez for a month, they added.
Sánchez strangled her to death after an argument, according to a document sent to CNN by the Madrid prosecutor's office at the beginning of the trial.
He then cut into his body with a carpenter's saw and two kitchen knives, storing some of the pieces in the freezer and throwing others away in plastic bags, the document read.
Sánchez has been nicknamed the "cannibal of Las Ventas" by the local media, for the area of Madrid where he lived with his mother.
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Cases of "cannibalism"
In December 2018, two South African men were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in what locals called the "cannibal case".
The year before, a traditional South African healer named Nino Mbatha appeared at a police station with a human leg and hand and told officers that he was "tired of eating human flesh."
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Later, Mbatha led the police to a house where more body parts were found.
He later denied eating human flesh, but was convicted of murder alongside another man, Lungisani Magubane.
CNN's Tara John and Brent Swails contributed to this report.
MurderCannibalismCrime
