Ex-cop is convicted of kidnapping conspiracy in alleged Internet cannibalism plot
A former police officer accused of plotting to kidnap, kill and cannibalize women was convicted on Tuesday of a kidnapping conspiracy.
Former New York City police officer Gilberto Valle could be sentenced to life in prison when he is sentenced June 19, report the New York Times and the New York Daily News. Valle was also convicted of accessing a federal database, allegedly to conduct research on potential victims.
Defense lawyers for Valle had contended he had no intention to carry out the fantasies he expressed in Internet chat rooms. Valle’s wife had alerted the FBI when she checked her husband’s chat history and learned he was planning to torture and kill her, she testified in his trial.
“The trial had drawn widespread attention,” the Times says, “in part because it involved a police officer’s bizarre and disturbing behavior, but also because it highlighted some of the darkest corners of the Internet, where fetishists hide behind Web identities like Girlmeat Hunter, which Mr. Valle used, and engage in role-playing fantasy about cannibalism and sexual torture.”
