Satanic killer who drank victim's blood to be freed

Germany is poised to release a criminal called the Satan Killer who sacrificed a man on a coffin in his home to drink his blood.

Daniel Ruda, 35, who filed his teeth into points to give him the appearance of a vampire, killed Frank Hackert at the home he shared with his wife Manuela, 32, in Bochum in 2001. She shared in the blood-drinking ritual.

Ruda was sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing Hackert, 33, with 66 stab wounds. The couple spent holidays in England and Scotland, sleeping in graveyards and attending devil-worship parties.

Manuela was sentenced to 13 years for her role and has since been freed from a psychiatric unit. She has been given a new identity and has no further contact with Ruda.

Next week a parole board will consider whether Ruda, who works as a librarian at a prison near Dortmund, should be freed as he has served two-thirds of his sentence.

His lawyer Hans Reinhardt said: "We want to show that he is not a dangerous man. In jail he takes no drugs, drinks no alcohol. His mother, who is 75, visits him regularly. She has only one wish; to see her son free before she dies."

But Doris Hackert, mother of the dead man, said: "I hope they don't let him out. I am not well. I am psychiatrically shattered. I cry a lot. It would be a nightmare for me if they let him out."

The couple said they had chosen their victim for sacrifice because he was "so funny and would be the perfect court jester for Satan".