Cannibal Cop Trial: Gilberto Valle 'Left World of Fantasy When Plotting to Eat Women'

The New York police officer accused of ploting to kidnap, kill and eat women "crossed the line" between fantasy and reality, prosecutors told a court.

Gilberto Valle is charged with conspiracy to kidnap and using a police database to make a list of targets to kill and eat.

It is alleged that the list contained details of up to 100 women.

Valle has denied the accusations. His defence attorney argued that the suspect was merely using internet chat rooms to discuss morbid fantasies and had no intention of acting them out.

But assistant US attorney Hadassa Waxman, prosecuting, accused Valle of conducting "eal research to kidnap real women".

In his closing arguments he said: "Officer Valle crossed the line. He left the world of fantasy and entered the world of reality.

"He was serious. He was not just entertaining himself. He would have carried out the plan if he thought he could get away with it."

The jury heard how Valle would go online to research how to cook women and would visit chat rooms to discuss how he would torture and cannibalise them.

A British man has been arrested on suspicion of being one of the men with whom Valle plotted to kill women.

Alien invasion

Waxman added: "None of this is fake. None of this is imagined. These are real searches conducted to carry out real research to kidnap real women."

Valle chose not to testify. His defence team argued his talk of cannibalising woman was "no more real than an alien invasion."

The FBI began investigating Valle after his estranged wife reported his online chats. she and her friends were mentioned in online discussions about abducting, killing and eating women.

Kathleen Mangan-Valle left their home with their baby after she discovered her husband had exchanged "thousands of emails" with others in which he plotted horrific murder and cannibal fantasies, including one involving herself and her friend.

Mangan-Valle also discovered a website frequently visited by her husband in which some of the 38,000 visitors discussed "suffocating women, cooking and eating them".

The jury also heard how Valle had used the internet to look up: "How to tie up a girl", "Human meat recipes", "How to chloroform a girl", "I want to sell a girl slave", "How to cook a girl", "Death fetish" and "Huge cooking tray".