Taking "bite me" too seriously

Remember Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal guy? Well, he's back in the news.

A sex expert at the retrial of a German cannibal jailed for killing a man and feeding on his flesh said Tuesday the defendant had not been motivated by a desire to kill but by his victim's wish to be eaten.

Armin Meiwes, who was jailed two years ago for killing a computer engineer who had begged to be eaten, is standing trial for the second time after Germany's top criminal court ruled that his eight-year sentence for manslaughter was too lenient.

So far, this sounds a little weird, but we're about to take a trip right into the Twilight Zone.

Meiwes's defense hinges on his victim's request to be eaten and that he was simply fulfilling this desire, a view backed up by a sex psychologist who addressed the court in Frankfurt.

"He (Meiwes) was convinced that he wanted it and that he would live on within him," Klaus Beier told the court. "His motivation was not to kill." [emphasis mine]

Ohhhhhh kay. I'm not any kind of expert, but that sounds like some serious crazy.

Beier described Meiwes as an affable, self-confident and positive man, who apart from his crime would have done little to attract attention.

Sounds like the old joke: "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

He told the crowded court how Meiwes had searched the Internet for a suitable partner, trawling through advertisements including one from a 26-year-old who was looking for "a likeable, older gentleman to read me my death sentence."

His search had been fruitless, however, until he met Bernd-Juergen Brandes, who had advertised for someone to "obliterate his life and leave no trace."

Again, I'm not an expert on the law--especially German law--but that sounds like intent to me. He was actively looking for somebody to eat.

Anyway, if you want some of the more grisly details, you can find them at the second page of the article, along with some psychobabble about how he did this because his daddy left him. Yeah.