The trial of a 41-year-old teacher, suspected of murder and cannibalism on another forty-something, began Tuesday August 10 in Berlin, a sordid news item that had shocked in Germany.
Read also: Arrest in Berlin of a man suspected of murder and cannibalism
The suspect Stefan R., dressed in a green checkered shirt, remained impassive when reading the charge and did not speak.
The prosecution suspects him of "
sexual homicide with aggravating circumstances
".
Almost a year ago he killed
another 43-year-old man
in his apartment "
in a still unknown way
", before he ate parts of his victim.
The two men would have met shortly before through an online dating site.
Tuesday's hearing was interrupted at the request of the defense, which criticized the prosecution for not having presented the entire prosecution case to the court.
The judge immediately ordered a postponement of the hearing for one week.
Bones found in a park
The package was revealed in November after walkers discovered fleshless human bones in a park in northern Berlin. The investigation had established that these were the remains of a missing man. It was by analyzing the victim's phone that the investigators were able to identify a taxi driver who had driven him to the home of the accused. The police then found traces of blood, other parts of the body and several tools, including a bone saw, in the suspect's apartment.
According to German media, he is a professor of mathematics and physical sciences teaching in a secondary school in the district of Pankow, in the north-east of the capital.
His alleged victim, a 43-year-old construction worker, had been missing since early September.
Famous cases of anthropophagy in Germany
The case recalls the case of Detlev Günzel, a former police commissioner, convicted of having killed and butchered, obviously at his request, a man met on a website of anthropophagy fetishists.
There was no evidence to establish that he had eaten his victim.
To read also: The "cannibal of Rotenburg" remains in prison
Another case that froze Germany in the early 2000s is that of Armin Meiwes, nicknamed "
the cannibal of Rotenburg
", sentenced to life in 2006 for a homicide followed by anthropophagia. A video then discovered by investigators had shown Armin Meiwes cutting the sex of his victim with his consent before the two ate the penis. Armin Meiwes then finished off his victim.