The District Court in Szczecin sentenced the main defendant in a murder and cannibalism case to 25 years in prison. The court found that Robert M. directed the murder of a man of unknown identity nearly 20 years ago. Three other men were also accused of eating the victim’s body parts – the court discontinued the proceedings barred by the statute of limitations.
Four men were charged in the case – Robert M., Sylwester B., Rafał O. and Janusz S. A fifth man, Zbigniew B., who died in 2017, was also allegedly involved in the case – he was the one who allegedly killed the man, whose identity was not established during the case.
The remaining men were incriminated mainly by the testimony of Rafał O., who told about them several years after the crime, which – according to investigators – took place in 2002 at Lake Osiek in the village of Ługi (Lubuskie). Rafał O. recounted that the main defendant, Robert M., first quarreled with a man at the premises in the village of Łasko – the man was later taken to the lake. The other defendants and Zbigniew B. went there with them.
The court found that Robert M. “directed the execution of the criminal act” – he ordered Zbigniew B. to kill the man with the words “you know what to do”. The man slit his throat and then cut the man’s head with a knife he had. Robert M., Zbigniew B., and the other men, the court found, then desecrated the victim’s body: they ate several parts of the slain man’s body after roasting them on a bonfire.
Robert M. is expected to spend 25 years in prison.
“(…) the defendants Sylwester B., Rafał O. and Janusz S. in the undetermined period between July and October 2002 in the area of Lake Osiek near Ługi, acting jointly and in agreement with Robert M. and an identified person (this is Zbigniew B.) insulted the corpse of an undetermined victim in such a way that after dismembering and roasting parts of the body they consumed them partially”
– read by Judge Tomasz Banaś. Due to the time-barring of the prosecution of offenses, he discontinued the proceedings.
The judgment is legally invalid. Robert M.’s defense attorney has announced an appeal.