Russian cannibal ate his mother:Court says he needed to eat

A cannibal who killed and ate parts of his mother had his sentence reduced by a judge who said 'he needed to eat'.

Sergey Gavrilov secured reduced time in jail after confessing: 'I did not like the meat very much. It was too fatty. But I was so hungry, I had to eat it.'

The 27-year-old was given a lenient prison sentence because the judge said he was starving and needed to eat after spending all his money on vodka and gambling machines.

Sergey Gavrilov put his mother's body on the balcony of the family flat near Samara in southern Russia (pictured)

The Russian man hit his mother Lyubov, 55, over the head with a brick and then strangled her with an electric cable following a row over her refusal to give him her pension money to spend on alcohol.

A court heard how he put her body on the balcony of the family flat near Samara, in southern Russia, and took her allowance before going on a two day drinking and gambling binge.

Returning to the flat, he soon ran out of food and started slicing meat from his mother's body.

'She was frozen, like meat in the freezer,' he told police.

He cooked soup and pasta with meat from his mother's body over a period of more than a month, he said.

The Russian criminal code dictates 15 years in jail for his crimes but the judge said he was reducing it slightly because Gavrilov - who previously served time in jail for robbery - pleaded guilty and 'he was not keen to eat the meat, he just was hungry'.

Gavrilov was jailed for 14 years and three months.

Psychiatric tests found the man was 'normal' mentally and fully aware of what he was doing.

He was caught when a policeman came to his flat, suspecting him of stealing a mobile phone.

The officer found the dead woman - with both her legs missing - on the balcony.