BERLIN: A man who used computer chatrooms obsessively and has been called "Germany's first internet killer" has gone on trial.
After flirting with more than 300 women online, and meeting many of them, he admits that he met and killed two of the women - one of whomwas stabbed 26 times with a bread knife.
Using the pseudonym "Rosenboy", the accused, a builder named only as Christian G, 27, spent years scouring the internet for women for casual sex. His defence lawyers said he created an online world that became a substitute for reality.
Yesterday, Christian G told judges in the Ruhr city of Essen that he had killed two of his chatroom acquaintances last northern summer.
His case has shocked Germany and earned G the nickname "Germany's first internet killer" in the tabloid press. By contrast, Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal who was convicted of killing and eating a man in 2004, advertised for a willing victim on the internet.
Christian G, who appeared in court yesterday with a goatee and close-cut hair, told judges he had killed his first victim, Jessica K, 26, "by mistake" after the two quarrelled during their initial meeting last June. Prosecutors alleged he stabbed her with a knife.
He claimed to have killed his second chatroom date, a 39-year-old mother of three called Regina B, 12 days later, because she had "provoked" him by asking him for money. Her corpse had been found with 26 stab wounds which seem to have been inflicted with a bread knife.
In a statement read out by his lawyer, Christian G told the court that, for several years, he had spent most of his free time visiting chatrooms.
