British man on trial for 'killing and EATING his girlfriend'

 

Last updated at 15:00pm on 8th November 2007 Comments (2)

A British killer 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, told a Spanish court he battered mother-of-two Karen Durrell, 41, to death with a mallet at her home on the Costa Blanca.

But he denied murdering her, cutting her body up with a knife and a saw and disposing of it in a suitcase.

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Killer: Paul Durant

 

Prosecutors today dropped a murder charge after Durant admitted the February 2004 manslaughter during a 30-minute court hearing.

After his arrest Durant wrote to a newspaper from his prison cell claiming he had butchered expat Karen and eaten parts of her body.

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 small rubbish bags.

"Before I killed Karen, I told her I had come to Spain where I was going to kill and eat paedophiles.

"I believed God had delivered her to me and I was getting messages from the telly.

"I believe she knew she had to die."

Police who searched the flat Karen shared with Durant found blood in her bath, bloodstained knives and a saw with traces of flesh on it.

But her body has never been found.

After today's hearing the victim's family said they had been left devastated by not knowing what had happened.

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Victim: Karen Durrell

 

They said in a statement released through British police: "For us as a family the past four years have obviously been incredibly difficult.

"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."

The family did not want to comment on Durant's previous boast he had eaten parts of Karen's body, Hertfordshire police spokeswoman Catherine Shepherd said.

Some of the victim's family members are still unaware of his gruesome claims.

Karen's sister Jackie Wood and ex-husband John Durrell stared intently at Durant in the courtroom as he admitted the killing.

Karen's mother Carol, father David and daughter Gemma, in her early 20s, were all in the court building but not the courtroom as they were expecting to be called as witnesses in the case.

Durant was led handcuffed into court number two at Alicante's provincial court, wearing an orange polo shirt, dark blue tracksuit and white trainers, with several days' stubble and a cut on his top lip.

He was surrounded throughout the hearing by three armed officers from the civil guard.

State prosecutor Inmaculada Palau asked him: "Do you accept that on February 18 or 19 you killed Karen Durrell?"

Balding Durant replied: "Yeah".

The prosecutor added : "You caused her death and disposed of the body?"

But Durant said: "No. I left the scene. I just left it"

And he went on to say he didn't put the body in a suitcase.

The chairman of a panel of three judges, Julio Jose Ubeda de los Cobos, asked him: "Do you have anything else you wish to say to the court?" He replied "no" before being led away to prison where is on remand awaiting sentence.

Divorced Karen, from Ilford, Essex, moved to the village of Calpe, 15 miles from Benidorm, in January 2004 in search of a better life.

But within weeks she was dead.

Durant, a heroin addict and convicted armed robber who was on the run from British police, moved into Karen's third floor apartment shortly after they met in a bar.

Her boyfriend Miles Lanning had recently returned to the UK to find work when Durant moved in.

Durant battered Karen to death at the flat in late February 2004.

A week later he bumped into a concerned friend of Karen's in the street. He told the friend he had killed Karen and chopped her into pieces.

Durant also showed the friend Karen's mobile phone and a credit card, which he had stolen and attempted to use in an ATM.

The friend alerted police, who smashed down the door of the flat and found the bloodied bath, knife and saw, but no sign of a body.

Durant was arrested and confessed to police, telling them he had battered Karen to death with a mallet following a row over a video featuring children being abused.

A prosecution statement based on that police interview stated: "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."

Investigators spent weeks searching the rubbish bins around Ms Durrell's home but failed to find her body.

Durant has given police at least five different versions of what happened.

In court, prosecutors dropped their claim that he had attacked Ms Durrell from behind and then cut up her body before disposing of it.

There was no mention in court of cannibalism.

Durant, from East London, will be sentenced by the panel of three judges at a later date.

State prosecutors have called for him to be jailed for 12 years for manslaughter, three months for the theft of the mobile phone and credit card, and six months for breaking into a house when he was on the run after killing Karen.

Private prosecutors acting for the victim's family also want him to pay compensation of 600,000 Euros (£417,000) Durant wrote two letters from his prison cell confessing to the crime.

The second was to a book publisher, suggesting his life-story could be turned into a best-selling book.

In it he confessed to another two murders in Britain.

He claimed he blasted a man in the head with a shotgun in a contract killing, and killed an old man who had sexually abused him as a child.

Durant was convicted of a string of armed robberies on security vans in England in the 1980s and 1990s.

He fled to Spain on a false passport after being arrested for an attempted armed robbery on a security van in London before Christmas 2003.

He escaped from British police custody while at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel following his arrest.

Durant's defence lawyer Juan Sanchez yesterday dismissed his client's cannibalism boast, and insisted his confession was "an attempt to going notoriety and fame."

looks like he left a bit of Karen round his mouth.

looks like he left a bit of Karen round his mouth.

 

Ian! :stunned:

 

...

 

It's hard to understand his mindset - impossible I guess.

 

While the TV does have the capacity to affect the brain considerably, I doubt "the telly" gave him "messages" which told him to go "to Spain where [he] was going to kill and eat paedophiles".

 

Very disturbing, paedophile eaters??.....Fuck :\

thats messed up

Ian! :stunned:

That's my name, don't wear it out! ;)

its cold here in spain today ian

:stunned:

 

Are you about to kill somebody???

Yuck ! :o There was the same story in France several years ago. A Japanese student had eaten a Dutch student girl. He was imprisoned for cannibalism.

Yuck ! :o There was the same story in France several years ago. A Japanese student had eaten a Dutch student girl. He got enjailed for cannibalism.

 

Was it because he thought she was made of cheese??:rolleyes:

i don't get how you have the audacity to joke about murders mark. you're pathetic...

 

thats digusting you can joke about something like that

i don't get how you have the audacity to joke about murders mark. you're pathetic...

 

thats digusting you can joke about something like that

 

And what about Ian's joke?? You approved?:rolleyes:

 

Anyway, people joke about far worse things than that. It's human nature.;)

What that, just 12 years in prison:dozey:. This court very cute:rolleyes:

What that, just 12 years in prison:dozey:. This court very cute:rolleyes:

 

So what do you think should happen to him??:rolleyes:

The Justice, he killed her on purpose and he didn't get enugh and ate her (he an animal) (i'm sorry to the animals). He must be execute.

I know it Maldini, our courts and laws suck most of the time, some people would like them to be stronger but, you see...

(the trial was in Spain, right?), but the government don't want laws to be stronger, then you see the result... an animal that had done a thing like that, will be not punished at all.. (is a joke his punishement taking into account what he had done)... but that's what we have. :(

 

sorry for the women. :(

we can joke, but the real joke is why he's only getting 12 years, and not life :rolleyes:

we can joke, but the real joke is why he's only getting 12 years, and not life :rolleyes:

 

Do you reckon he'll at least end up in soleatary confinement??:rolleyes:

as i said, spanish law and courts sucks in this thing... there were commited more crimes like that and the punishment was a joke.. fucking ley del menor :angry: (once some guys (u18), tortured and killed a girl (they crashed/hitted her with a stolen car several times, and burned the girl), and none of them went to prision as they were not legally adults... :angry: just to a juvenile center, for some years (4 or 5), even when the trial was due, they were adults, but as the crime was commited when u18 the law that was applied, was for non adults...

 

some politicians don't want to make the law stronger in that part/sense, although a big part of spanish society want the law to be stronger, but the government don't want to do it... reinserción teory... it's been applied since long time, and some criminals keep commiting their crimes when leaving the prision...

 

fucking politicians. :angry:

 

**sorry for my vocabulary, i don't know too much about the one of this kind (law and crime...) but i hope you understand what i mean.

 

bassically i agree with your last post Ian.

Do you reckon he'll at least end up in soleatary confinement??:rolleyes:

definately not, he'll need people around him :sneaky:

definately not, he'll need people around him :sneaky:

 

Well they wouldn't be around him for very long, would they??:rolleyes:

And what about Ian's joke?? You approved?:rolleyes:

 

Anyway, people joke about far worse things than that. It's human nature.;)

 

oh yes of course. human nature is to be inhumane and cruel. obviously you don't understand human nature.

 

and ian, tsk tsk tsk. low jokes.

oh yes of course. human nature is to be inhumane and cruel. obviously you don't understand human nature.

 

and ian, tsk tsk tsk. low jokes.

 

Bite me..................... :rolleyes:

ah the perenial intelligent comeback. oh how i miss that when i'm not on here...

ah the perenial intelligent comeback. oh how i miss that when i'm not on here...

 

I think you mean perennial.:rolleyes:

Mark, I must say, you really like to camp up these threads....