in march 2001, meiwes, a then 41-year-old bisexual computer technician, placed an advertisement online for a well-built male he could kill and eat. forty-three year old bernd-jurgen brandes answered the ad later that month. meiwes took brandes to his home in rotenberg. brandes had sex with meiwes, then asked meiwes to cut off his penis. meiwes did so, then fried the penis. the two ate it. meiwes then killed brandes with brandes's consent by stabbing him repeatedly in the neck. he cut the body in pieces and froze the pieces for later consumption. meiwes was arrested in december 2002. he had consumed about 20 kg of brandes' body. cannibalism was not illegal in germany in 2001 when meiwes killed and ate brandes. meiwes was convicted of killing by request and defiling a corpse. he received a sentence of 8.5 years. the meiwes case was the first cannibalism case in germany.