'I wasn't even hungry': Russian cannibal FREED from court despite admitting he ate his fisherman friend as distraught wife says all she is left with is his foot



Mr Abdullaev said he ate their friend 'not because I was hungry'

Olga Korochkin, 38, says she has been left with her husband's foot with toes



She described her husband being eaten as 'a horror' that has ruined her life

She appealed to Russian president Vladimir Putin to help out in the case

But a judge gave the cannibal a three year suspended sentence

A Russian cannibal who admitted to eating his friend on a Siberian fishing expedition walked free from court despite confessing to the jury that he wasn't even hungry when he ate him.



The victim's distraught wife Olga Korochkin, 38, spoke out of her 'horror' at her husband's brutal killing after she revealed that all she's been left with is his foot with toes, one finger, and the back of his skull with some hair.

Her husband, Andrei Kurochkin, 44, was eaten by his close friends - Alexei Gorulenko and Alexander Abdullaev - fishermen who got lost for months during an expedition in frozen Siberia.

Not that hungry: Alexei Gorulenko gets a hot meal on board a flight after his rescue - he would later admit to eating his friend

In happier times: The dead man Andrei Kurochkin is pictured here on his wedding day with wife Olga who has been left with his human remains after he was eaten by friends

His wife said : 'Can you imagine what I have left? One foot with toes, one finger, and the back of his skull with some hair. This is it.

'This is all I have left from the man I loved. Having just these remains, how can I say goodbye to him? I have got almost nothing to cry over...sorry, I can't think about it, I am losing my mind with this.



'I never expected such horror could come into my life. It has ruined not just my life, but also the lives of all our relatives, and we are a big family', she said, according to the Siberian Times.

'Now I want these cannibals to be punished. I fear our police are not keen to investigate this case properly. Our law does not say a word about cannibalism, it is not a crime.'

Family man: The victim Andrei, right, is pictured with his daughter and wife Olga, left, before his fateful trip to Siberia

During the court case in Russia to decide the mens fate both made the shocking admission that they weren't really that hungry when they sliced up their friend and ate him.

The prosecution at the trial in Neryungri alleged Mr Korochkin, was beaten by the two fishermen who then dismembered, cooked and ate the man's corpse.



Forensic examinations of the recovered body showed that sections of flesh had been carefully sliced away while joints had been butchered.



The court heard how they carried his body with them as they sought to escape their frozen hell.

The dreadful revelations prompted Mr Kurochkin's family to argue that his friends had butchered him to death and they should be on trial for murder.

But the court threw out the murder charge and convicted Alexei Gorulenko of causing bodily harm for which he was given a suspended three-and-a-half year jail sentence.

Cannibal: Alexei Gorulenko is pictured here - he admitted he ate a friend after they were lost for days during an expedition in frozen Siberia during a court case in Russia

Rescue: Survivor Alexander Abdullaev is pictured in a grey jumper during his rescue after he and other fishermen were lost for days during the expedition in Siberia

The other survivor of the cannibal fishing expedition Mr Abdullaev, 38, was treated by the court as a witness and not charged.

After the incident reports suggested that Mr Abdullaev, 37, ate Mr Kurochkin after he had frozen to death in the minus 40 degree temperatures.



Mr Abdullaev told police in Neryungri, in Russia's Sakha Republic: ' He died by himself. He froze to death. Only after that did we start eating him.'



But this week in a rambling statement to the court, he admitted they ate their friend 'not because I was hungry. I had another reason,' according to reports.



However, he declined to say what it was.



The victim's widow, said that she had hoped her husband might still have been alive but this was dashed by a DNA test which proved that a few fragments of bone were his.

'Now I am sure they have eaten him. Now we know that Andrei died somewhere else and they dragged the body all the way through the snow, eating it step by step. But together with the remains of my husband there were also found the bones of animals.



'If they could kill animals, why would they need to try eating a human body? And why did they carry his head with them?'

Cannibals: Both Alexander Abdullaev and Alexei Gorulenko are pictured being rescued after they ate a pal - Mr Gorulenko was convicted of causing bodily harm for which he was given a suspended three and a half year jail sentence

After the suspended sentence was handed down, the dead man's wife expressed her disgust over the verdict.



'I am shocked by the decision of this judge, and with the work of investigator who dealt with the case.



'Nobody expected it to end like this, that a cannibal walks free with a suspended sentence. I just can't understand what the judge was thinking about when [he] produced such a verdict for Gorulenko.'



She added: 'The last recorded acts of forced cannibalism were in besieged Leningrad (during World War Two) and under the rules of war, people performing it were executed. Modern Russia cannot tell these people to 'enjoy their meal'.



'Mr Gorulenko hasn't spoken to me once. He didn't call, he didn't explain what happened in the taiga. He didn't even say sorry, like people do.'



'And he was Andrei's childhood friend. He has now gone back to fishing and this summer he will return to the taiga forest.'

Mrs Korochkin had even took her appeal to President Vladimir Putin after her and the couple's 22-year-old daughter, Alyona feared that the case was not being properly investigated.

She will now appeal the verdict.



The fishermen had been missing for nearly two months after their Jeep sunk in a frozen river stranding the ice-fishing party in one of the most isolated spots in the world.



A fourth man Vladimir Komarov remains missing, presumed dead.

Sad loss: Mrs Korochkin, left, and her daughter Alyona, had appealed to President Vladimir Putin over fears the case was not being properly investigated





