Cannibalism in Britain

A convicted killer eats a man in London:

Today the Old Bailey was told of repeated failings by key professionals after Peter Bryan pleaded guilty to two killings.

Sentencing him to two life sentences, Judge Giles Forrester told him he would never be released because he was too dangerous.

A major row erupted over how he was ever considered to be safe enough to be discharged. Bryan, now 36, was convicted of killing a 20-year-old girl with a hammer in 1993 and sent to Rampton. In 2002 he was freed.

In February 2004, within hours of his release by the East London and City Mental Health Trust, he had killed and dismembered a friend at a Walthamstow flat. He cooked his brain in a frying pan with butter before eating it. The trust today promised a full independent inquiry. Following the Walthamstow killing Bryan was sent to Broadmoor mental hospital where he killed a fellow inmate in a "medium risk room" nine weeks later.

Today at the Old Bailey he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was being sentenced this afternoon. Lawyers are pressing for Bryan to be added to the small number of psychotic killers considered to be too dangerous ever to be released again.

The man has a staggering history of violence:

Bryan's killings started in March 1993 when he went round to confront his former boss at a clothes shop in a dispute over money.

Arriving at the shop in the King's Road he battered the boss's daughter Nisha Sheth to death with a claw hammer.

Sent to Rampton maximum security hospital in February 1994, he was granted a conditional discharge in January 2002 and sent to a hostel where residents have their own front door and room key and can "come in and out as they wish." After an allegation-of an indecent assault on a 16-year-old girl, Bryan was sent back to hospital but only as an informal patient on an open ward at Newham General Hospital.

Just hours after being granted as much leave as he wanted Bryan walked out and killed. His victim Brian Cherry, 43, was described by friends as a "friendly, harmless" man. Bryan hacked him to death, severing his arms and legs and inflicting serious head injuries.

Let's hope this monster never gets the opportunity to kill again.