Synopsis Cannibalism is the ultimate act of human savagery but few have delighted in their barbarism like Peter Bryan, who bragged how he had fried one of his victim's brains in Clover margarine.

Cannibal...Peter Bryan, Britain's real life Hannibal Lecter Horrendous...Bryan ate his victim's brains To see more pictures, just go to the end of the story, or search the Picture Archive.

PETER BRYAN: THE REAL HANNIBAL LECTER by Peter Stubley

Peter Bryan found his 'appetite for killing' after he was sacked from a fashionable Kings Road boutique where he worked as shop assistant.

He had fallen for Nisha Sheth, the 20-year-old daughter of the shop's owners and would tease her and hide her possessions to gain her attention.

Nisha reported Bryan to her mother after he returned to the shop to steal some clothes while she was in charge.

Bryan, then aged 23, and with no previous convictions, was dismissed after he kicked mother Rahmid Sheth and hit her with a belt.

The killer, who was then living in Derby Street, Forest Gate, East London was questioned by police and a week later he returned to the shop seeking revenge.

Nisha was on the phone in the shop on the night of March 18, 1993 while her 12 year-old brother Bobby was helping to shut up for the night by bringing in the display from outside.

Bryan hit Bobby twice over the head with a club hammer, smashing him to the floor.

The schoolboy looked up to see Bryan grab his sister and hit the talented South Bank University student five times around the head with the hammer.

DEAD ON THE SHOP FLOOR

Nisha was dead before the ambulance arrived.

An hour later Bryan jumped from the third floor balcony of a building in Battersea in an apparent suicide attempt but survived with badly injured feet.

Bryan, who had been high on cannabis, admitted the manslaughter of Nisha on the grounds of diminished responsibility and grievous bodily harm to Bobby Sheth.

He was locked up in the Rampton maximum security psychiatric unit 'without limit of time' until the doctors saw fit to release him.

They did nine years later and he was eventually sent to stay at the Riverside House residential care home in Seven Sisters, north London.

Bryan was treated at Topaz Ward in Newham General Hospital, in east London as a care in the community patient after he 'blew raspberries' on a 16-year-old girl's stomach.

But he was chillingly able to mask his madness under a veneer of normality and on February 17, 2004 it was agreed Bryan could leave the ward as much as he wanted.

THE PROCESS OF DISMEMBERMENT

By 7pm that night his next victim Brian Cherry would be dead and in the process of dismemberment.

Mr Cherry, 43, who was described as a 'nice man, lonely with no friends' lived at a ground floor flat at 1 Manning House, The Drive, Walthamstow, east London.

Bryan met Mr Cherry through a local woman Nicola Newman who arrived at the flat at around 7.15pm on February 17 and noticed a strong smell of disinfectant.

She saw him emerge from the living room bare chested holding a knife to announce: '''Brian is dead.''

'She naturally did not believe him and tried to look into the room,' prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee told the Old Bailey.

'She saw Mr Cherry lying naked on the floor and could see one of his arms on the floor clearly separated from the rest of his body.

Mrs Newman left to call the police who arrived to find Bryan standing in the hallway in the dark with bloodstained hands, jeans and trainers.

In the kitchen officers noticed a small amount of meat in a frying pan and found Bryan had hacked the right leg and both arms from Mr Cherry’s body.

KNIVES ON THE FLOOR

Blood-stained knives were strewn around the floor.

Bryan told officers he had killed Mr Cherry after the victim opened his door and then said: 'I ate his brain with butter, it was really nice.'

He later added: 'I would have done someone else if you hadn't come along. I wanted their souls.'

Referring to the victim's arms Brian said: 'I used the Stanley knife to cut them off and some other kitchen knives but I had to stamp on them to break the bone.'

The right arm had been sawn and then fractured and the left arm was also shattered.

Mr Jafferjee said: 'The severed left leg was partly sawn and partly fractured. At the top of the right left the muscle had been completely divided and superficial sawing of the bone had commenced.

'The pathologist concluded the defendant had been interrupted before he could complete the amputation of that limb.'

Mr Cherry had suffered severe injuries to his head and face and his head had been partly sawn off.

There were at least 24 impacts on his head from either the head or the claws of the hammer which had been used with 'severe force to small the skull open’

SKULL SMASHED OPEN

Police found blood spattered around the living room and three knives smeared with fatty tissue.

The meat frying on the hob was part of Mr Cherry's brain.

More brain tissue and hair matted in blood was heaped on a plate with a knife and fork on the draining board.

'Nearby was an open tub of Clover butter' said Mr Jafferjee.

'He said he saw food on the floor covered in red, which looked like meat and he cooked and ate it.

'He then returned to the deceased, again to be comforted by the smell of blood.'

'There was a significant failure within the Mental Health care regime in recognising the danger that the defendant presented.

'Even more startling is the fact that such a capacity for failure within this regime was to manifest itself again in just nine weeks time.'

CRAZED IN PENTONVILLE

Bryan was so crazed that prison officers at Pentonville jail had to use riot shields when unlocking his cell.

He was interviewed by a member of staff and told him he wanted kill a warder and eat someone's nose.

Bryan was finally admitted to Broadmoor maximum security hospital on April 15, 2004 where he was at first kept in a cell.

But doctors then transferred him to the medium risk Luton Ward because he was thought to have 'settled.'

Bryan's third victim, Richard Loudwell, 60, was awaiting trial for the murder of an 82-year-old woman and was a patient on the same ward.

On the day of his death, April 25, 2004, Mr Loudwell was 'happy, cheering and laughing.'

At around 6.10pm three members of staff heard two bangs coming from the dining room and found Mr Loudwell lying on the floor next to a table and chair.

His face was covered in blood and there was a strangulation mark around his neck.

When Bryan was found he said: 'I smashed his head on the floor' and told how he had tried to strangle Mr Loudwell with a piece of cord.

'I WANTED TO EAT HIM - BUT I DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME'

Mr Jafferjee said: 'He said he had been thinking about it for a few days and had wanted to eat him but did not have time.’

Bryan told doctors: 'I get these urges you see. I've had these urges ever since I saw him.

'He's the bottom of the food chain, old and haggard. He looked like he'd had his innings.

'I was just waiting for my chance to get at him. I wanted to kill him and eat him.

'I didn't have much time. If I did I'd have tried to cook him and eat him.'

Asked if wanting to eat people was normal, he replied: 'Of course its normal. Cannibalism is normal. It's been here for centuries.

'If I was on the street I'd go for someone bigger, you know, for the challenge.

'I felt excited when I attacked him. I wanted to shag him when he was alive and also when he was dead.

'I BRIEFLY CONSIDERED EATING HIM RAW'

'I wanted to cook him but there was no time, nor was there access to cooking equipment. I briefly considered eating him raw.'

He added: 'It's something like a ritual. I must be becoming a serial something.'

Bryan then named another patient as being next and was locked in his room.

Mr Jafferjee said: 'He believed that the human body was a natural food source and it made him stronger.

'He had wanted to kill eight people because he wanted to be known as a serial killer.'

Bryan told the doctors he thought he would be released into the community again despite killing three people.

Mr Loudwell died on June 5 from broncho-pneumonia caused by severe brain injuries.

Psychiatrist Dr Martin Lock, who carried out a series of 'Silence of the Lambs' style interviews with Bryan said he was 'the most dangerous man I have ever assessed.'

He told the doctor: 'You look like a brainy chap and you are quite slim. I think I could take you.'

Bryan also described the victim's arms and leg as 'tasting like chicken.'

THE PYSCHO WHO CAN APPEAR NORMAL

Mr Jafferjee said Bryan should die behind bars and added: 'He is at his most deadly when he is able to present himself as entirely calm and settled.

'This case reveals a chilling insight into the mind of a man who had developed an appetite for killing.'

Judge Giles Forrester told Bryan: 'You had the urge not only to kill but also to eat the flesh of your victims.

'You experienced feelings of power and invincibility. Not only that but you gained sexual excitement from the act of battering your victims to death.

The judge added: 'The earlier treatment at hospital did not cure your disease and there is no reason to believe a hospital order now will do what it failed to achieve back in 1994.

'It is clear that you can appear calm and cooperative where harbouring bizarre psychotic beliefs.’

Bryan was given a whole life sentence and will never be released from Broadmoor again.

Dismember...Bryan butchered his victim before he ate him

Stain...blood was spattered over the flat