'Cannibal Cop' Gilberto Valle guilty of planning to eat women

A JURY has found Gilberto Valle, the New York policeman dubbed 'The Cannibal Cop', guilty of plotting to kidnap, rape, kill and eat dozens of women, including his wife.

The 28-year-old's lawyer insisted his client never intended to turn his "ugly fantasies" into action. But prosecutor Hadassa Waxman told the US District Court in Manhattan that Valle had "left the world of fantasy and entered the world of reality" by contacting some of the women mentioned in his plans.

The jury agreed, deciding he was actively planning to carry out the crimes he discussed with other members of what The Independent calls the "disturbingly large" online community that "exchanges and encourages cannibalism fantasies".

The investigation of that community, and the search for the British "mentor" who had allegedly encouraged Valle's obsession, led to the arrest of two men in Kent earlier this month. Nurse Dale Bolinger and an unnamed 30-year-old man were both arrested and bailed on charges of conspiracy, grooming and the possession of child abuse images.

Judge Paul Gardephe described the graphic evidence seen by the court during Valle's trial as "[degrading to] the human spirit". Valle combed the internet for advice on subduing people with chloroform, and tying them up with ropes. Search terms found on his computer included "human flesh" and "white slavery".

Prosecutors told the court he had visited a street that was home to a woman he had agreed to kidnap for $5,000 for a New Jersey man, who is now awaiting trial.

Valle, who was arrested by the FBI last year after a tip-off from his now estranged wife, was also found guilty on a lesser charge of improperly accessing a law enforcement database to gather information about a series of potential victims.

Valle's estranged wife, Kathleen Mangan, 27, testified against him at his trial, telling the court she had found "thousands of emails" detailing his plans to like-minded fetishists. "I was going to be tied up by my feet and my wrists and my throat slit, and they were going to watch the blood drain out of me," she told the court.

In other emails Valle discussed how two other women would be "raped in front of each other to heighten their fears", and another would be roasted alive over a fire.

Valle faces life in prison when he is sentenced in June. ·