KASSEL, Germany — A hotel worker told a German court Monday 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 organizer in London for an international chain, described his encounter with Armin Meiwes, 42, who is on trial for killing and eating a man.
Moller and Meiwes, a computer expert, met via the Internet and confessed their cannibalistic tendencies to each other in regular e-mails, court sources said after the hearing in Kassel, which was held in private.
The pair finally came face to face at a hotel after 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 Brandes was a willing victim.
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, 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 movies. 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 room at his house.
At that point Moller got cold feet, and, according to Meiwes’ lawyer, “decided the fantasy was enough, reality too much.”
“He watched it, and said to me: ‘You can do this but not that,'” Meiwes told the court.
Realizing Moller’s reluctance, Meiwes backed down from killing him.
Moller spoke only to confirm his name, age and profession before announcing he wanted his evidence heard in private.
The trial continues.