Ex-girlfriends of self-confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes told a German court Friday he was always kind to children and desperately wanted to marry and have children of his own.
The women said they had no notion of his other side: that he was simultaneously seeking gay males to kill, his home contained a slaughterhouse and his computer was full of images of butchery.
One woman said she had split with him after he said he was gay.
After days of sickening evidence about how Meiwes, 43, carved up a Berlin engineer while the victim was still alive -- allegedly with the man's consent -- the court in the northern town of Kassel was hearing character evidence.
Meiwes' half-brother, 48, said the younger boy used to build model houses and mess around in the garden and showed no interest as a child in violence or killing animals. "He was a normal kid who used to get into fights with other kids sometimes," he said.
The brother said he was flabbergasted when told Meiwes was accused of cannibalism.
One woman, 39, said, "He gave a rather childish impression. When he was playing with my children, it was as if he were a child himself."
She added, "You could tell he really enjoyed being with my family." She said she had broken off the relationship before any sexual contact, because Meiwes had admitted homosexual tendencies.
"Armin is a very emotive and sensitive person," she said.
Meiwes earlier claimed to the court he broke up with her because she did not want to have any more children.
Another woman, a neighbor, testified that Meiwes had shown interest in her and had once spoken of his desire to marry and have lots of children. She said the women in Wuestefeld, a tiny hamlet of 30 people where Meiwes lived, had all been fond of Meiwes.
"He joined in family life. He minded the children," she said. "We'd have him in for coffee."
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the