British 'cannibal' jailed for killing, eating girlfriend
Pastor Dale Morgan
British 'cannibal' jailed for killing, eating girlfriend*
By Fiona Govan and Tom Worden in Alicante
Last Updated: 3:43pm GMT 08/11/2007
A British man who claimed to have chopped up and eaten his girlfriend is
facing 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to her manslaughter.
Paul Durant, 47, was arrested in February 2004 on suspicion of murdering
Karen Durrell, 41, a divorced mother of two from Ilford, Essex.
She disappeared shortly after meeting Durant just days after she moved
to the Costa Blanca on Spain's southeastern coast in January 2004.
Police searched her flat in the resort of Calpe, 15 miles east of
Benidorm, and found her blood in the bath, bloodstained knives and a saw
with traces of flesh on it, but her body has never been found.
Durant wrote letters from his prison cell in which he claimed that he
was driven to killing and eating Ms Durrell by voices emanating from his
television.
"After I killed her, I cut her body into small parts, eating what parts
of her I found eatable," he wrote in a letter sent to The Daily Mirror.
"I finally disposed of what was left in small rubbish bags," he said.
In the disturbing letters he admitted that he had discussed his desire
to eat human flesh with Ms Durrell.
"Before I killed Karen, I told her I had come to Spain where I was going
to kill and eat paedophiles," he wrote.
"My mental state was breaking down at this stage - I believed God had
delivered her to me and I was getting messages from the telly. I believe
she knew she had to die," he said.
But the court in Alicante heard that Durant, from East London, had
battered Ms Durrell to death with a mallet on February 18 or 19 after a
row over a video they were watching.
A prosecution statement based on a police interview with Durant after
his arrest said: "They were both in the living room watching a film in
which children were sexually abused when they started to argue about its
contents.
"In the course of the argument, the accused left the room and returned
with a mallet, which he used to hit her about the head from behind,
provoking her death.
"Paul took the body to the bathroom and put it in the bath, where, using
a knife and a saw, he cut it up and put the different parts of the body
into plastic bags, which he put in a suitcase he found in the house, and
put it in a container near to the house.
"The mutilated body was taken away unknowingly by rubbish collectors."
Durant will be sentenced by the panel of three judges at a later date
and faces a prison term of 12 years.
Members of the victim's family attended the hearing and said they had
been left devastated by not knowing what had happened.
"For us as a family the past four years have obviously been incredibly
difficult," they said in a statement released through British police.
"Words cannot express how much we miss Karen, who was a much loved
daughter, mother, sister and friend.
"Not knowing what happened to Karen adds to our pain still further.
"We draw little comfort from the conclusions of today's proceedings and
as a family cannot find closure or move on with our lives at this time."
Durant's defence lawyer Juan Sanchez dismissed his client's cannibalism
boast, and insisted his confession was "an attempt at gaining notoriety
and fame".