NEW YORK — New York City police officer Gilbert Valle was found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to abduct women for the purpose of cooking them alive and cannibalizing their corpses.
Valle, dubbed the "Cannibal Cop" by the tabloid media, was also convicted on a charge of illegally using a police database to target potential victims, some of which he contacted under false pretense.
At the center of the case was adult fetish website DarkFetishNet.com, where approximately 4,000 of 38,000 registered members actively discuss their girl-grubbing fantasies and recipes.
Valle’s now estranged wife, Kathleen Mangan, told the jury that Valle had downloaded images of women roasting on spits from the site and participated in online conversations about cannibalism, including chats in which he plotted her gruesome demise.
According to Reuters.com, Valle's defense maintained that the 28-year-old father of one was only engaged in a game of online fantasy and stressed that, despite the fact he had interacted with some of the women on his potential victim list, no crimes had been committed.
"This is a dangerous prosecution when we start opening up our minds and prosecuting what's inside our brains and not in the real world," said Valle's attorney Julia Gatto. "We totally believe the government did not prove their case and the jury couldn't get past the thoughts."
Valle will be sentenced on June 19. He faces up to life in prison on the charge of conspiracy to kidnap and one-year for breaching the police database.
"Today, a unanimous jury found that Gilberto Valle's detailed and specific plans to abduct women for the purpose of committing grotesque crimes were very real, and that he was guilty as charged," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, following the trial.
"The Internet is a forum for the free exchange of ideas, but it does not confer immunity for plotting crimes and taking steps to carry out those crimes."
