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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/6543233/Russian-cannibal-who-ate-mother-has-sentence-reduced-because-he-was-hungry.html
Russian cannibal who ate mother has sentence reduced ‘because he was hungry’
A Russian cannibal who killed and ate parts of his own mother has had his prison sentence reduced by nine months after a court accepted he resorted to cannibalism out of hunger rather than preference.
Sergei Gavrilov admitted he had used parts of his murdered mother’s legs to make soup and pasta for weeks on end. But he argued he was driven to the desperate act because he had ran out of money and was starving.
“I did not like the flesh,” he told investigators. “It was too fatty.”
A court in southern Russia accepted his explanation and ruled that the unemployed 27 year-old had therefore not wantonly defiled his mother’s own corpse. It did find him guilty of murder, however, and sentenced him to fourteen years and three months in prison, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
That is nine months less than the standard 15-year sentence for such a crime. Mr Gavrilov got off more lightly because of his confession and because the judge believed he had turned to cannibalism out of hunger rather than preference.
Man ‘had nightmare about burglar and woke to find he had strangled wife’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6591394/Man-had-nightmare-about-burglar-and-woke-to-find-he-had-strangled-wife.html
A husband who had a nightmare in which he fought a burglar woke to find he had strangled his wife, a court heard.
By Andy Bloxham
Brian Thomas with his wife, Christine Photo: WALES NEWS
Brian Thomas, 59, who has two daughters, killed his wife Christine, 57, in his sleep while they were on holiday in their camper van.
He “dreamed that an intruder had broken into their motor homeâ€, tackled the intruder but instead strangled his childhood sweetheart and wife of 39 years.
Thomas, who is retired, has suffered all his life from a chronic sleep disorder which means he cannot control his actions, the court heard.
The unusual case has led prosecutors to seek a verdict of not guilty due to insanity, despite recognising that Thomas is not insane “in the everyday sense of the wordâ€.
Swansea Crown Court heard the couple, from Neath, south Wales, often went on trips in their white, two-berth Peugeot camper van.
On July 26 last year, they drove the 60 miles to the seaside village of Aberporth, in Cardiganshire on Wales’ west coast.
They parked outside the village’s Ship Inn and ate steak and chips together before going to bed at around 11.30pm.
However, the court was told that “boy racers†began performing wheel spins and handbrake turns in the car park, creating so much disturbance that they had to move.
Thomas takes pills for Parkinson’s Disease and was also on anti-depressants which, combined, affected his sexual performance, the court heard.
The couple slept in separate bedrooms at home but whenever they went on holiday, they shared a bed and he stopped taking the pills so they could enjoy sexual intercourse.
The court heard they were a “happy, devoted coupleâ€.
On the night Mrs Thomas died, the couple went to sleep after moving their camper van but her husband had a nightmare in which he thought one of the young drivers had broken in.
Thomas sobbed in the dock as a recording was played of the 999 call he made minutes after strangling his wife.
In the call, timed at 3.49am, he said: “What have I done? I’ve been trying to wake her.
“I think I’ve killed my wife. Oh my God. I thought someone had broken in.
“I was fighting with those boys but it was Christine. I must have been dreaming or something.
“What have I done? What have I done? Can you send someone?â€
Thomas was crying and shaking when he was found by police officers 10 minutes later.
The court heard he had suffered from sleep-walking, nightmares and other sleep-related problems for about 50 years.
Paul Thomas QC, prosecuting, said he was not seeking a verdict of guilty to murder because of medical evidence about the defendant’s chronic nightmare problem.
He said: “This is a highly unusual case.
“The defendant accepts he caused the death of his wife, but the prosecution do not seek a verdict of guilty to murder or manslaughter.
“Instead, very unusually, we seek what is called a special verdict – a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.â€
The jury was told that detectives were sceptical when Thomas claimed he had been asleep but scientists specialising in sleep disorders conducted a series of tests and concluded his behaviour was consistent with the “legal concept of automatismâ€, in which people act without knowing what they are doing.
The jury was told they could clear Thomas of murder or find him not guilty by reason of insanity.
Thomas denies murder.
The trial continues.
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