The Eye

A psychiatric patient walked out of a mental health ward and ate the brain of a friend he cooked in a frying pan.

He was given two life sentences yesterday for killing two men.

At the Old Bailey, Peter Bryan, 35, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Brian Cherry, 43, whose brain he fried in butter, and Richard Loudwell, 59, another psychiatric patient.

Bryan told doctors that cannibalising human beings was like “eating the forbidden fruit” and confessed he “really enjoyed eating Mr Cherry’s brain”. One psychiatrist said he was probably the most dangerous man he had assessed.

Because he was a voluntary patient, in a north London Hospital, after doctors had assessed him to no longer be a danger, Bryan was free to leave the ward and visit Mr Cherry in nearby Walthamstow in February last year. He inflicted more than 24 blows to Mr Cherry’s head with a hammer, and used a Stanley knife and kitchen knives to saw off his arms and left leg. Neighbours called the police after hearing screams, but Bryan had already fried Mr Cherry’s brain using a tub of Clover and eaten some of it when police entered the blood-soaked flat.

Bryan was given two life sentences and told that life would mean life.