NY cannibalism trial jury pool shown kinky images

NEW YORK— Potential jurors seemed surprised at a New York City police officer’s cannibalism trial Friday when a judge began by describing some sexually violent and deviant conduct they must witness before deciding whether the officer’s plans to kill and eat women were fact or fiction.

And that was before they were handed questionnaires that included staged Internet color photographs of a nude woman hogtied on a roasting tray with an apple in her mouth and another naked woman tied horizontally to a pole over an open fire. A third page was a drawing of a bound naked woman boiling in a glass pot.

Officer Gilberto Valle, 28, is charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and with unauthorized access to a federal database.

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe told potential jurors the trial would feature emails and instant messages in which Valle discussed in great detail the kidnapping, raping, torturing, murdering and cannibalizing of certain women.

He said the defense would argue that Valle’s communications “were all sexual fantasy and imaginary role play, and that he never intended to kidnap, rape, torture, murder or eat any woman.”

Many of Valle’s communications took place on fetish websites in which people discuss, view and post images and videos of deviant conduct, including necrophilia, sexual asphyxiation, genital mutilation, rape fantasies, bondage and various forms of sadomasochism, the judge said.

He said the trial would not be a referendum on the websites, and jurors would not be asked to address the legality of the websites or the images they feature.

Opening statements are scheduled for Feb. 25.