26 October 2007

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Amsterdam prosecutor's office called for a four-month prison sentence on Thursday for a Frenchman who killed and cut up his dog after eating hallucinatory magic mushrooms.

Jeremy Venzin, 29, "ate hallucinogenic mushrooms and smoked cannabis nearly every day in the two weeks prior to the incident," according to a psychiatric study.

Police found Venzin in his van on July 13, his motionless nude body covered in the blood of his furry companion. The vehicle was parked along one of the canals in the centre of the Dutch city.

He had slit the dog's throat and then skinned it before cutting it open to pull out the organs.

He told police officers that he had killed the dog to liberate it from the demons that were living inside it and that the end of the world was near. During testimony Venzin denied he had made those statements.

Judgement is expected on November 8.

AFP

Subject: French news