Germany: A German court has sentenced a 28-year-old man to life imprisonment for the "merciless" murder of an 11-year-old boy last year.
Mr Magnus Gäfgen, a former law student, pleaded guilty to abducting Jakob von Metzler, son of a wealthy private banker, in Frankfurt last September, suffocating him and dumping his body in a lake.
"Magnus Gäfgen didn't just take Jakob's death into account, he wanted Jakob's death," said Mr Hans Bachl, presiding judge at Hesse state court in Frankfurt yesterday, describing Gäfgen as "merciless, scrupulous and extremely greedy".
Germany was gripped by the four-day kidnap drama last year after Gäfgen, an acquaintance of the Metzler family, kidnapped the boy shortly after he got off his usual school bus home.
Less than two hours later, having killed the boy by taping his mouth and nose shut, Gäfgen delivered a ransom note to the nearby home of Jakob's father, Mr Friedrich von Metzler (59).
Mr von Meltzer is head of the Metzler Bank, Germany's largest private bank, with offices around the world, including Dublin.
Jakob was heir to his father's banking fortune.
A day after collecting the €1 million ransom, Gäfgen was arrested by police watching the pick-up point. Once in custody, he refused to say where the boy was or whether he was alive or dead.
Investigators stirred up controversy when it emerged that they threatened to torture Gäfgen to get him to confess.
The police officers involved are now under investigation but justified their approach because they thought there was still a chance of finding Jakob alive. They maintain they didn't hurt Gäfgen, but that he quickly confessed he had killed the boy and dumped his body in a lake north-east of Frankfurt.
Last week, a weeping Gäfgen told the court: "Give me a sentence that treats me hard, but doesn't destroy me. A sentence that gives me back sense and perspective."
The state prosecutor called the crime "a planned and cold-blooded execution of murder" and rejected Gäfgen's admission of guilt as an attempt to win a reduced sentence.
The court agreed and said Gäfgen's "exceptional guilt" meant he should not be released within the next 18 years.
Mr Hans Ulrich Endres, defence counsel, announced an appeal to the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on the grounds that his client's confession was made under duress.
"Should Karlsruhe agree with me, then Magnus is free in three years and has a right to imprisonment compensation," said Mr Endres to Focus news magazine.