An Italian man allegedly cut open his Dublin landlord's chest and tried to eat his heart after a fight over a chess match.
Saverio Bellante, 34, was charged yesterday with murder. Police say he admitted his guilt after being arrested on Sunday at the home he shared with Tom O'Gorman, a policy researcher for a conservative Catholic think tank in Ireland.
Pathologists said the 39-year-old victim suffered dozens of severe knife wounds to his head and chest, which had been cut fully open. Ireland's senior pathologist determined that the heart remained, but a lung was missing.
Police offered no explanation for what happened to the lung. Evidence suggested that O'Gorman's prone head and body had also been bludgeoned with a dumbbell.
Bellante called police to report the killing. He claimed to officers that he had cut open O'Gorman's chest and tried to eat his heart after a dispute over a move in a chess match the two had been playing.
He offered no plea at his arraignment yesterday in a Dublin court. When Judge David McHugh asked him why he had no lawyers, Bellante said he wanted to represent himself and that he would decline state-funded legal aid.