Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Was it playful fantasy or a gruesome plot?
That’s the question surrounding the case of a New York City police officer accused of plotting to kill and eat as many as 100 women, the Associated Press reports.
An attorney for the officer, Gilberto Valle, says the Internet chatter, meticulous notes and banter were nothing more than harmless fantasy.
“There is a big difference between discussing, and even fantasizing about this type of activity and actually carrying it out,” said Jeffrey Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College. “Not all the people who fantasize about it will go on to carry it out.”
Some of the flesh-eating sites where Valle, a 6-year NYPD veteran and a father of an infant child, posted about eating women ran with disclaimers that the banter is only for fun, the AP reported.
The government, however, points out that Valle was keeping information on real women.
“This is somebody using a database to target potential victims,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hadassa Waxman said. “That means it’s more serious.”
Waxman said Valle was on the verge of kidnapping, killing and eating a woman.
