German satanic couple sentenced

BOCHUM, Germany -- A couple who killed a friend by stabbing him 66 times in a Satanic ritual have been jailed.

Daniel Ruda, a 26-year-old former car parts salesman, and his 23-year-old wife Manuela had confessed to the killing in their apartment, surrounded by human skulls, cemetery lights, scalpels and incense.

He was sentenced to 15 years and she was jailed for 13 years and both were ordered to start their sentences in a psychiatric hospital.

They said the devil had ordered them to send him a human sacrifice because he wanted a "court jester," the court in Bochum was told.

Manuela said she had acquired a taste for vampirism during a visit to London, where she attended "bite parties" at which people voluntarily had blood sucked from their veins.

The two have fanned the media interest in them with defiant behaviour in court, making rude gestures, rolling their eyes maniacally and sticking their tongues out.

Manuela, who slept in a coffin in their apartment, said she drifted into the "gothic" scene after the devil contacted her when she was 14.

She met Daniel after responding to his advert in a heavy metal magazine that read: "Pitch black vampire seeks princess of darkness who hates everything and everyone," Reuters news agency reported.

The dead man, a 33-year-old colleague of Ruda's, was found in the couple's apartment covered in knife wounds and with a scalpel protruding from his stomach.

A pentagram, the sign of the Devil, had been carved into his chest.

The couple spent a week on the run after the murder last July, driving around Germany and attempting suicide several times. They were arrested after being spotted at a petrol station in Jena.

The court heard during the trial how the two had launched themselves into a world of devil worship, inciting each other to commit violence.