LONDON (Reuters) - A self confessed cannibal who killed three people, dismembering one victim and eating part of his brain, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Peter Bryan, 36, a paranoid schizophrenic, on Tuesday pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey court to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The judge, describing the case as exceptional, told Bryan that in this case "life means the rest of your natural life".
Bryan had killed two men two months apart while under the care of mental health institutions in Britain. Both prosecution and defence lawyers criticised mental health authorities in whose care he had been placed since his first killing in 1993 of a 20 year old student.
Bryan was sentenced for the killing of Brian Cherry, 43, in February 2004 and Richard Laudwell, 60, slain two months later at Broadmoor prison where he was in custody for the first attack.
When police arrived at Cherry's East London flat they found his corpse dismembered with part of his brain in a frying pan.
"I would have done someone else if you hadn't come along," Bryan told officers. "I wanted their souls."
Bryan later told psychologists that cannibalism was normal, a voodoo ritual that was "like eating the forbidden fruit."
Bryan, whose family has a history of mental illness, killed again when remanded in Broadmoor, a high security prison outside London, the court heard.
Laudwell, who Bryan described to psychiatrists as "the bottom of the food chain, old and haggard," died 10 days later in hospital.
Bryan's first victim Nisha Sheth was killed in March 1993, after which he was placed in care under the Mental Health Act.
Prosecution counsel Aftab Jafferjee said the British health authorities had "manifestly failed to protect the public."
Peter Bryan, 36, a paranoid schizophrenic, on Tuesday pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey court to two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The judge, describing the case as exceptional, told Bryan that in this case "life means the rest of your natural life".
Bryan had killed two men two months apart while under the care of mental health institutions in Britain. Both prosecution and defence lawyers criticised mental health authorities in whose care he had been placed since his first killing in 1993 of a 20 year old student.
Bryan was sentenced for the killing of Brian Cherry, 43, in February 2004 and Richard Laudwell, 60, slain two months later at Broadmoor prison where he was in custody for the first attack.
When police arrived at Cherry's East London flat they found his corpse dismembered with part of his brain in a frying pan.
"I would have done someone else if you hadn't come along," Bryan told officers. "I wanted their souls."
Bryan later told psychologists that cannibalism was normal, a voodoo ritual that was "like eating the forbidden fruit."
Bryan, whose family has a history of mental illness, killed again when remanded in Broadmoor, a high security prison outside London, the court heard.
Laudwell, who Bryan described to psychiatrists as "the bottom of the food chain, old and haggard," died 10 days later in hospital.
Bryan's first victim Nisha Sheth was killed in March 1993, after which he was placed in care under the Mental Health Act.
Prosecution counsel Aftab Jafferjee said the British health authorities had "manifestly failed to protect the public."
