Lawyer Denies His Client Is A Cannibal

A man suspected of murdering a fellow homeless person and devouring his entrails killed the victim accidentally and cut open the body only because he wanted to see what was inside - not eat it - a lawyer said Wednesday.

Philipp Winkler, the attorney for the suspect, a 19-year-old German whose name was not released, said his client aspired to study medicine and had a purely clinical interest in the victim's body parts.

"He wanted to see what we look like inside," Winkler said, adding that the suspect "only looked at" the victim's organs and brain.

Police interrogated the suspect Wednesday for the first time since his arrest in August. Authorities said his mouth was smeared with blood and that a plate of entrails from his victim, a 49-year-old man, was found nearby.

Investigators said the suspected allegedly cracked open the victim's skull using a 22-pound dumbbell and sliced open his body with a switchblade.

The suspect has been in psychiatric care since his arrest.

Winkler said the victim died during a dispute between the two men, and said the suspect characterized the death as an accident.

Officials said a forensic examination was still ongoing to determine whether the suspect ate any of the parts.

In 2004, Armin Meiwes gained international notoriety for killing and eating a willing victim he had found on the Internet. He had originally been found guilty of manslaughter but prosecutors appealed the sentence in 2005 where he was tried and convicted of murder.