The desire to consume human flesh is so strong that some people are prepared to kill for it.
From a man who fried his victim's brain in butter telling cops it tasted "really nice," to bloke who bragged that he'd eaten his girlfriend – these men have taken their sick crimes to another level.
Many are still rotting in prison but some are due for parole, with one even back on the streets. Here are some of the most horrifying cases of cannibalism from across the UK.
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Anthony Morley
Ex-Mr Gay UK Anthony Morley is known for one of the most gruesome murders of all time.
The model from Leeds who had previously worked as a chef was 36 when he was convicted of killing and butchering his boyfriend, Damian Oldfield before cooking and eating him.
A judge described the case as one of the most gruesome murders he had ever encountered.
Morley stabbed the victim multiple times when they were in bed together watching Brokeback Mountain before cutting up and cooking his flesh in herbs and olive oil.
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After the murder, Morley stumbled into a nearby kebab shop in his dressing gown covered in blood and asked someone to ring the police.
Morley claimed at the time that he was acting out of self defence after someone had tried to rape him.
He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in October 2008 to at least 30 years in prison.
As of May 2022 he is still serving time in Leeds prison. He works in the prison as a chef.
Peter Bryan
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Peter Bryan was dubbed “Peckish Pete” for slaying BrIan Cherry and scoffing his brain.
He told police he fried the 43-year-old’s brains in butter, just like Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs sequel Hannibal, saying it tasted "really nice."
And just days after arriving at Broadmoor Hospital for that offence in 2004, he choked to death patient Richard Loudwell, 60.
Bryan told staff that he would have also feasted on sex offender Loudwell if he had had more time.
Bryan had clubbed to death a 21-year-old woman in 1993.
He spent eight years in Rampton maximum security psychiatric unit before being released on the advice of psychiatrists.
In February 2004 it was deemed that he was well enough for a little freedom. Bryan walked out of the open psychiatric ward in Newham General Hospital, where he was staying at the time and it was that night he killed Brian Cherry at his home in Walthamstow.
He told cops "I would have done someone else if you hadn’t come along. I wanted their souls."
Peter Bryan will likely spend the rest of his life in Broadmoor.
David Harker
Self-proclaimed cannibal killer, David Harker boasted that he had eaten parts of his 32-year-old victim – mother-of-four Julie Paterson.
Harker is serving a life sentence after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after Ms Paterson went missing from her home in Darlington, County Durham, in 1998.
Harker lured the vulnerable mum-of-four back to his flat where he strangled her, before mutilating and dismembering her body.
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Parts of her body were found in a bin liner hidden in a garden hedge but the rest of her remains have never been recovered.
It emerged Harker had told friends and psychiatrists that he had fried part of her thigh and eaten it with pasta and cheese.
A judge at Teesside crown court sentenced him to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should not be eligible for parole for at least 14 years.
But the sadistic killer could still be freed if a parole board decides that he is no longer a risk.
Paul Durant
Paul Durant was dubbed the Costa Cannibal after bragging that he ate his girlfriend after beating her to death with a mallet.
He pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Karen Durrell after claiming to have dismembered and eaten her in Costa Blanca in January 2004.
Durant sent a letter to a newspaper saying that after killing Ms Durrell, a divorced mother-of-two from Ilford, Essex, who had just moved to Spain, he cut her body into small parts and ate sections of the flesh.
He wrote: “After I killed her, I cut her body into small parts, eating what parts of her I found eatable. I finally disposed of what was left in rubbish bags.”
Her body was never found.
Durant is now free from prison and back on the streets of Britain after serving 12 years behind bars.
Robert John Maudsley
Serial killer Robert Maudsley, known as ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’, has spent more than 16,400 consecutive days in isolation for his sickening crimes – with guards even refusing to ever be alone with him.
The 68-year-old was serving a life sentence for double murder when he killed two fellow inmates at Wakefield jail on July 28, 1978.
Since that day, he has spent nearly 45 years of his sentence in solitary confinement. He has been kept in an 18-foot by 15-foot cell encased with bulletproof windows and a steel door.
It is said to bear an uncanny likeness to the cell of cannibal killer Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs.
Mawdsley acquired the nickname after claims he dug a spoon into the brain of one of his victims, an allegation he always denied.
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