A CANNIBAL murdered a fellow patient at a high-security UK hospital weeks after he had killed another man and eaten his brains, an inquest has heard.

Peter Bryan, who was admitted to Broadmoor hospital on April 15, 2004 after a spell at Belmarsh prison, where he was described as "extremely dangerous," attacked sex offender Richard Loudwell on April 25 by tying a ligature around his neck and smashing his head on the floor.

The inquest at Berkshire Coroners' Court in Windsor was told that fellow patients may have deliberately masked the sound of the attack from staff in a nearby room by singing the Small Faces' song Lazy, Sunday Afternoon.

Bryan, 41, later told staff he "wanted to eat" Loudwell, 60, who died in the hospital six weeks after the attack.

The inquest heard that when Bryan arrived at Broadmoor he had been put in seclusion for the first four days and then allowed to mingle with patients under "general observations" or 15-minute checks.

Jurors were told that staff did not have concerns about Bryan's behavior and that he had not seen a doctor in the six days preceding the attack.

Bryan is known to have killed two people previously. In 1993, after attacking a 21-year-old woman by striking her on the head with a claw hammer six times, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. He spent eight years at the high-security Rampton Hospital.

Three years after his release, he attacked and dismembered a man, named as Brian Cherry, 43.



The inquest jury heard that police officers found a frying pan on the stove with tissue from the dead man's brains. They also found a claw hammer and a blood-stained knife.

Jurors heard that Bryan told police officers: "I ate his brains with butter, it was really nice." He later added, "I would have done somebody else if you had not come along, I wanted their souls."

The jury heard that in the seven years since the killing a number of inquiries into the incident had already taken place. The inquest continues.



Originally published as Brain-eating cannibal killed patient