On February, 1999, cannibal killer David Harker admitted to manslaughter in the death of 32-year-old Julie Paterson, on grounds of diminished responsibility. Prosecutor Paul Worsley told Teesside Crown Court in northeast England that Harker confided to a psychiatrist that he chopped up his victim and ate part of her body with pasta and cheese. Harker, 24, who has the words "Subhuman" and "Disorder" tattooed on his scalp, claimed he strangled mother-of-four Julie Paterson with her tights after he "got bored" during a sex session. He told psychiatrists he then had sex with her before chopping off her head and limbs, slicing flesh from her thigh, skinning it and cooking it.
The 6'5" unemployed killer bragged about his cannibal feast and claimed to be a serial killer. After Julie's death he boasted that he had killed two other people, one a tramp-like man in the North East. Paul Worsley QC, prosecuting in Teesside Crown Court, said police had investigated his claims but could find no evidence to prove them.
For years Harker fantasised becoming a "notorious serial killer". Witnesses told detectives he "avidly viewed" films about serial killers and read books on them. He boasted to friends that he "wanted to kill someone" and had erotic fantasies about mutilating bodies. His favourite films were Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer and A Clockwork Orange. When doctors asked him about Hannibal Lecter in the film Silence Of The Lambs he said chillingly: "People like me don't come from films - them films come from people like me."