“Luka" The Cannibal Collapsed in Court } Such Girl Actor!
A Canadian porn actor accused of dismembering his Chinese lover and mailing the body parts to political parties and schools has collapsed in court today, during the second week of his preliminary hearing.
Luka Magnotta, 30, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the gruesome slaying and dismemberment of Jun Lin last May.
He is accused of killing the university student and posting a video online that shows him stabbing and having sex with the dismembered corpse.
He held his hand over his mouth and asked the guard in his glass-enclosed defendant's box for a five-minute break.
Wearing a black sweater with colored stripes, Magnotta appeared distressed during a video evidence session this morning. The evidence is subject to a publication ban, until it is determined that there is enough evidence to go to trial.
He stood up and collapsed on the floor just after the judge agreed to an extended lunch break.
According to Canadian Press, he was all of a sudden lying on his right side, crumpled into a fetal position, in the courtroom, still handcuffed and shackled.
'You might want to make room for an ambulance,' the Crown prosecutor, Louis Bouthillier, told the guards outside the courtroom. 'Somebody's collapsed.'
Canadian Press said Magnotta's eyes were fixed on the ground not on the screen where the, presumably gruesome, video evidence was being shown.
When he began covering his mouth, his lawyers came to check on him and 10 minutes into that segment of the hearing he asked the baliff to his side to request the break.
As well as first-degree murder, Magnotta is also facing four other charges relating to the case.
He is accused of dismembering Lin and mailing parts of his body across Canada, before leading police on an international manhunt before he was finally arrested in Germany.
The porn actor first appeared in court last Monday as his lawyers unsuccessfully sought to close pre-trial proceedings to the press and public.
Magnotta has observed all hearings from a glass enclosure in the packed Montreal court room.
During the proceedings, which are expected to last another one to two weeks, prosecutors are outlining the case against 30-year-old Magnotta and seek to persuade a judge they have enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
On March 11, appearing for the first time since soon after his June arrest, Magnotta wore a white T-shirt and khaki trousers, leaning back in his chair as he listened to legal arguments.
Also in the courtroom was Diran Lin, father of victim Jun Lin, whose dismembered body parts were mailed to schools and political parties in the Canadian capital Ottawa and Vancouver in a crime that shocked Canada and gained international notoriety.
'This is the worst thing a family can endure. We are empty,' the Journal de Montreal quoted Diran Lin as saying in an interview ahead of the hearing. 'We had so much hope for Jun Lin.'
Police say the video, which they believe is genuine, showed a man stabbing his victim to death before dismembering the corpse and then eating part of the body.
Lin's hands and feet were mailed in May to the offices of political parties in Ottawa and to schools in Vancouver.
His torso was found in a pile of garbage behind Magnotta's Montreal apartment, and his head was discovered in a Montreal park in July. Lin was a student at Concordia University in Montreal.
Initial arguments revolved around an unusual defense request to exclude the public and the media, which was denied. The court imposed a publication ban on the evidence presented.
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