Killer dubbed Costa Cannibal after boasting that he ate his girlfriend is back on the streets of Britain
COSTA Cannibal Paul Durant should never have been freed to live in Britain, his victim’s distraught family said. The brute, now 60, has settled in a block of flats among neighbours who are unaware he bludgeoned lover Karen Durrell to death and then boasted of eating her. But a source close to Karen’s family said: […]
COSTA Cannibal Paul Durant should never have been freed to live in Britain, his victim’s distraught family said.
The brute, now 60, has settled in a block of flats among neighbours who are unaware he bludgeoned lover Karen Durrell to death and then boasted of eating her.
But a source close to Karen’s family said: “It’s the stuff of nightmares. Her folks were told earlier this summer he was about to get out but it doesn’t make it any easier.
“Karen’s body has never been found. Her death was so traumatic and it left so many unanswered questions. To have to live with that and then see this man out on the streets again — how do you deal with that?
“He made all those claims, admitted killing her and now he’s free again. It’s just not right.”
CANNIBAL’S CONFESSION
Former heroin addict Durant killed mum-of-two Karen in Spain while he was on the run over two cash-box robberies.
He met the 41-year-old divorcée from Ilford, Essex, in January 2004 in a village near Benidorm, where she had moved in the hope of a better life.
Weeks later, police broke into her flat where they found blood, a knife and a saw with traces of flesh — but no body.
Durant told police he hit her with a mallet. He said: “After I killed her, I cut her body into small parts, eating what parts of her I found edible.”
He was dubbed the Costa Cannibal but withdrew the claim and was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter.
He returned to finish his sentence in Britain in 2010 before being jailed for another eight years and eight months for the robberies.
NEIGHBOURS ‘NERVOUS’
Freed last month, he moved into a flat in Tower Hamlets, East London. One neighbour said: “He moved in recently and at first no one knew much about him.
“Then someone put two and two together and everyone’s a bit twitchy, to be honest.
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“He likes a drink but people down the pub are saying they don’t want to cross him.”
Karen’s dad Dave declined to comment on Durant’s release.
He said: “It’s a horrific thing that happened.”
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