'Cannibal cop' trial goes to jury

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NEW YORK, March 7 (UPI) -- A federal court jury in New York began deliberation Thursday after hearing closing arguments in the trial of accused "cannibal cop" Gilberto Valle.

Valle, a former New York City police officer, sobbed in court Thursday as his lawyer, public defender Julia Gatto, told jurors he had a penchant for "disturbing porn" and his alleged plot to kidnap, cook and eat women was a product of "sick thoughts" and "ugly fantasies" that should not land him in prison, the New York Post reported.

Gatto argued that authorities acting out of "emotion and disgust" charged Valle "with a crime he did not commit."

Valle, 28, cried as Gatto told jurors how his wife, Kathleen Mangan-Valle, took the couple's daughter and left him after discovering his online chats about abducting, cooking and eating her and others.

Prosecutor Randall Jackson called Gatto's arguments "ridiculous" and told jurors Valle's preference for looking at images of dead women, or women who were being subjected to torture, "is not a masturbatory sexual fantasy."

"This is a man who has a deep-seated desire to harm women, and the evidence shows he was taking actual steps to realize it," Jackson said.