A federal judge in Manhattan overturned the conviction of a former New York City police officer who dreamed up a plot so heinous the press dubbed him the "cannibal cop."
Gilberto Valle was convicted in 2013 in connection to a plan to kidnap women, butcher, kill and eat them.
On Monday judge Paul G. Gardephe of Federal District Court rejected the kidnapping conspiracy conviction, ruling there was not enough evidence to back it up.
"The evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle's Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play," Gardephe wrote in his opinion obtained by The New York Times.
The judge upheld Valle's other conviction of illegally gaining access to law enforcement databases, a charge which holds a maximum sentence of a year in prison. The kidnapping acquittal, the most serious charge, spares Valle a life sentence.
Prosecutors claim the former cop's arrest in 2012 prevented him from carrying out a plan to "kidnap, torture, rape and commit other horrific acts on young women," according to NBC News.
The trial focused on conversations Valle had on fetish websites where he expressed a desire to abduct women, torture and cook them in the oven before eating their "girl meat," according to NBC News.
Valle never actually harmed any woman. Whatever he thought about was "no more real than the alien invasion" radio drama titled "War of the Worlds" that aired in 1938, defense attorney Julia L. Gatto said according to The NY Times.
But prosecutors say Valle went too far when he used a police database to research potential victims and later stalked them.
The final word, however, came from Gardephe, who wrote that "despite the highly disturbing nature of Valle's deviant and deprived sexual interests, his chats and emails about these interests are not sufficient- standing alone- to make out the elements of conspiracy to commit kidnapping."
Valle, who was fired from the NYPD, remains behind bars while he awaits sentencing.
