A Montreal court today set a March date for preliminary hearings in the case of a man accused of murdering a student, dismembering the body, mailing out body parts and then posting a video of the killing online.
Canadian porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta's 10-day hearing, before a judge and jury, is set to start on March 11th, 2013.
Magnotta (29) has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and to other charges connected to the death of Chinese student Jun Lin on May 24th or 25th. He was deported to Canada from Germany last week.
Magnotta appeared in person in a packed courtroom, wearing a short-sleeved plaid shirt tucked into pants.
"He wanted to come back to Montreal," Magnotta's lawyer, Luc Leclair, told reporters outside the courtroom. "He trusts the Canadian judicial system."
Mr Leclair did not request a psychiatric evaluation of Magnotta, who left a long and bizarre internet trail as a gay escort, and would-be reality TV star.
Police say the video, which they believe is genuine, showed a man stabbing his victim to death before dismembering and defiling the corpse and then eating part of the body.
The hands and feet of Lin (32), Magnotta's former lover, were mailed to the offices of political parties in Ottawa and to schools in Vancouver, while his torso
was found in a pile of rubbish behind Magnotta's Montreal apartment. His head remains missing.
The case horrified Canada and prompted an international manhunt. Montreal police have described the crime scene as the worst they have ever seen.
Reuters