Horror as depressed man saws off his finger... and then EATS it for dinner

In a brutal act of self-cannibalism, a New Zealand man cut off his finger with a small electric saw, dropped it into a cooking pot with vegetables then ate it up for dinner.



The 28-year-old man told medical authorities that he was driven to the bizarre act because he was suffering from severe depression.



In one of only eight documented cases of self-cannibalism recorded in the world, the man planned to chop off two other fingers and eat them too, but eventually decided against it.



DIY: The researchers said that the final act of cutting off his finger and eating the flesh resulted medical staff taking the unnamed man more seriously

'He felt extreme anger and for the first time fantasised about not only killing his assailants, but of eating them too,' said a report in the medical publication Australasian Psychiatry.



The report's authors, Erik Monasterio and Craig Prince, said the man, who has not been named, used a shoelace as a tourniquet to tie his finger before using a jigsaw - which has an up-and-down motion - to cut it off.



'At the end of 2008, following another personal crisis, and while not being fully compliant with his medication, he spiralled into another episode of depression,' the researchers said.



'He experienced significant insomnia and suicidal ideation and ruminated for days about cutting off his fingers.

'In an effort to seek reprieve from these thoughts, he tied a shoelace around his (little) finger to act as a tourniquet and cut the finger off with a jigsaw.



'He then cooked it in a pan with some vegetables and ate its flesh.



'His plan was to amputate another two fingers the following day.'



According to the researchers, the man informed mental health staff about his violent thoughts and of threatening to eat part of himself during previous episodes of depression.



'It is possible that his lack of violence and any offending behaviour, as well as his lack of psychosis, made clinicians somewhat complacent about his threat and that more drastic action was finally required by him.'



The researchers said that the final act of cutting off his finger and eating the flesh resulted medical staff taking him more seriously and providing the care and understanding that he longed for.

