gilberto valle Archives

New York Cannibal Cop Found Guilty

A New York police officer was convicted on Tuesday in a bizarre plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women, ending a trial whose outcome hinged on the delicate legal distinction between fantasy and reality.

What’s the difference between protected speech (like online fantasies) and threats that warrant legal action?

The trial had drawn widespread attention in part because it involved a police officer’s disturbing behavior, but also because it raised a fundamental question: When does a virtual crime, contemplated in Internet chat rooms, become an actual crime?

There was no evidence that any of the women whom the officer, Gilberto Valle, was accused of plotting to kill were harmed. But prosecutors argued that the officer took actual steps to further his plot, like conducting surveillance of potential victims and researching them in a law enforcement database.

Officer Valle, 28, could be sentenced to life in prison for one count of kidnapping conspiracy.

The trial highlighted some of the darkest corners of the Internet, where fetishists hide behind Web identities like Girlmeat Hunter, which Officer Valle used, and engage in role-playing fantasy about cannibalism and sexual torture.

One of Officer Valle’s lawyers, Julia L. Gatto, called the verdict “devastating” and said the defense did not believe that the government had proved its case.

“This was a thought prosecution,” Ms. Gatto said. “These are thoughts, very ugly thoughts, but we don’t prosecute people for their thoughts. And we’ll continue to appeal and continue to fight for Mr. Valle.”

The verdict came on the 12th day of Officer Valle’s trial in United States District Court in Manhattan. He was also convicted of illegally gaining access to the law enforcement database. He faces up to five years in prison on that count, prosecutors said.

h/t New York Times

Cannibal Cop Case In New York Gets Gruesome

Remember the New York police officer who was arrested for his cannibalistic plot to kidnap, kill, cook and eat women? Well his case is now being heard in New York and things are getting hot… no pun intended.

Gilberto Valle – NYC Cop on trial for Cannibalism

NEW YORK (AP) – Jurors appeared uncomfortable Monday as prosecutors showed an apparently staged video of a screaming woman being cooked alive over an open flame and other disturbing images from websites devoted to torturing and eating women – evidence prosecutors say proves a New York City police officer was involved in a cannibalism plot.

Officer Gilberto Valle visited web pages showing various women, FBI computer forensics examiner Stephen Flatly testified at Valle’s kidnapping conspiracy trial. “Some are dead. … A couple of them appeared to have been strangled.”

As Flatly described the images that were displayed on video monitors in federal court in Manhattan, some jurors put their hands over their mouths. One shook her head. Another wiped his brow.

One cannibalism website allegedly visited by Valle promised customers they would “only receive the highest quality human beef.” The jury also heard how the officer allegedly looked up “how to tie up a girl,” “human meat recipes” and other topics the defense says were part of a fetish fantasy that never posed a real threat.

The FBI analysis of Valle’s laptop yielded a video of a naked woman hanging over an open flame and screaming in agony. It was not indicated in court whether staged or real but it seemed staged. A flame sometimes rose near the woman’s crotch but didn’t appear to linger long enough to singe the skin, and the camera at one point focused on her sweating body.

There also were several photos of women with bright red apples stuffed in their mouths.

Another image of a woman roasting on a giant spit was discovered in a computer file that Valle kept on a former college friend that prosecutors have identified as a target of the alleged plot to kidnap, torture and eat women.

h/t USA Today