Cannibal killer receives two life sentences

A convicted killer who was caught as he prepared to eat parts of one of his victims has received two life sentences.

Peter Bryan, 35, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility of Brian Cherry, 43 and Richard Loudwell, 59, at the Old Bailey earlier. The prosecution had accepted Mr Bryan's not guilty pleas to charges of murder, due to the amount of psychiatric evidence.

Peter Bryan was arrested after he left a mental health unit in east London and went to Mr Cherry's home in Walthamstow, where he murdered him. Police had been called to the scene, following reports from neighbours who said that they had heard screams. Police found Mr Bryan preparing to cook body parts, including brains, in a frying pan in order to eat them.

Mr Bryan killed Mr Loudwell while he was being detained at Broadmoor. Mr Loudwell, who was detained at Broadmoor for the manslaughter of 89-year-old Joan Smyth in Kent in December 2002, received head injuries during an attack by Mr Bryan in April last year and he died in June.

Mr Bryan had previously been sent to a secure hospital in 1994 following the murder of Nisha Sheth, a twenty-year-old shop assistant, whom Bryan beat to death with a hammer the previous year. He was released in 2001.

Prosecuting lawyer, Aftab Jafferjee, said that the case had revealed a "chilling insight into the mind of a man who has literally developed an appetite for killing".

(KMcA/SP)