'He was going to watch the blood rush from my body': 'Cannibal' Cop's ex-wife sobs as she recalls finding husband's emails detailing chilling plot to kill her as well as images of bloody women

• Gilberto Valle, 28, 'plotted to kidnap, cook and eat at least 100 women'
• His estranged wife, Kathleen Mangan, 27, took the stand today in the first day of his trial
• Described finding sickening images of dead and tortured women on her computer as well as emails Valle had written where he plotted to rape and kill her and her friends
  
• Valle is expected to take the stand on Tuesday to say that his disturbing thoughts should not be taken seriously
• Lawyer showed jurors image of a woman trussed up in a roasting pan
  

By Simon Tomlinson and Helen Pow

Published: 05:17 EST, 25 February 2013 | Updated: 11:36 EST, 26 February 2013

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The estranged wife of New York City's 'Cannibal Cop' has described how she learned her husband wanted to tie her up by her feet and her throat and 'watch the blood rush from (her) body' after finding frightening emails on her computer.

Gilberto Valle's spouse Kathleen Mangan took to the stand today in the first day of the former NYPD officer's kidnapping conspiracy trial and, sobbing uncontrollably, told jurors how she first discovered the man's sick fetish when she found pictures of naked and bloody women on her computer, some of whom were dead.

Wearing a pink top, with her long dark hair out, Mangan, the first government witness in the trial, said: 'I was supposed to be tied by my feet and throat and they were going to watch the blood rush from my body.'

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Target? Kathleen Mangan, right, was the subject of horrifying e-mails between Valle and other internet users. He claimed he could lure his wife to India so she could be eaten

According to The New York Daily News, the 27-year-old told the courthouse how she'd met Valle on a dating website and they married last year, a few months after their daughter was born.

She said at the beginning it was all 'fun, laughter' but soon she found Valle looking at dirty websites late at night.

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'It was porn,' she said. 'It was disturbing. S&M. I knew it was popular.... But this was different.'

She said she installed spyware to learn more about what her husband was trawling through until four or five in the morning and was shocked when the software came up with the pictures of tortured, sometimes dead, women.

Mangan told jurors that she ran away immediately, taking the couple's daughter to a neighbor's apartment before getting on the first plane back to her parents' home in Reno, Nevada.

But a few days later, she said she looked at the computer again, which is when she discovered what her cop husband was plotting for her.

Valle was also sobbing in the courtroom as he listened to his wife recount the grisly details, the Daily News reported.

Sobbing: Kathleen Mangan sobbed in court, shown here in a sketch, as she discussed her husband's plot to abduct, torture and eat dozens of women

Wife: In this courthouse sketch, Kathleen Mangan, right, testifies about discovering her husband's sick fetish for torturing and eating women

Mangan then recalled other chats she found on her computer, including one where Valle talked about raping her and a friend at the same time to 'heighten the experience.'

She said another friend's fate was being cooked in an 'apparatus.'

During cross-examination, defense attorney Julia Gatto asked Mangan why she initially refused to be interviewed by her husband's lawyers. To this, the mother explained that she held back because she feared speaking up would further risk her life.

'You represent the man who wanted to kill me' she said. 'No I didn't want to talk to you.'

Earlier, Gatto began her cross examination by pulling out a photograph of a uniformed Valle holding the couple's daughter, Josephine, who is wearing a pink bunny suit, and asking Mangan to describe the scene.

'It's before church, before a Holy Name Society breakfast,' she said, before breaking down into sobs.

On trial: In this courtroom sketch, Gilberto Valle is seen in federal court in New York as his wife, Kathleen Mangan testifies

Cannibal Cop: The former New York City police officer Gilberto Valle, is alleged to have conspired to kidnap, kill and eat six women, including his wife

Defense: Federal Defender Julia Gatto, right, speaks to the court as former New York City police officer Gilberto Valle, center listens

After a short break, Gatto interrogated Mangan about her husband's night-time habits

'He kept odd hours?' she quizzed.

'He kept exceptionally odd hours,' Mangan replied, according to the Daily News. 'He was up until 4 or 5 a.m. and sleeping until noon.'

Mangan, a teacher before she gave up work to care for her daughter, explained how frightened she felt when 'all the weird stuff happened.'

Questioning her about discovering Valle's penchant for 'S&M' sites, Gatto asked the 27-year-old: 'You just found S & M porn on your husband's account on your computer,' to which Mangan snapped back: 'I don't know why you keep calling that stuff porn.'

According to the Daily News, Valle covered his face in the court and looked down as his wife continued to testify against him.

Earlier, Mangan told jurors how Valle was distraught when she fell pregnant with Josephine and told her 'I can't do this.' She said he seemed to regain his composure. however, during the pregnancy she said 'he wasn't there.'

  VIDEO  Valle's estranged wife struggled to keep composure in court 

Testimony: Kathleen Mangan, pictured right as she's driven away from court on Monday

Shocked: Mangan, back right, said she was shocked to find Valle had visited a website featuring a photo of a dead woman and other gruesome images

The officer is on trial for kidnapping conspiracy after admitting online to thinking about abducting, cooking and devouring young women. He is expected to take the stand himself today to say his sordid plans were all fantasy and shouldn't be taken seriously.

In opening statements, assistant U.S. Attorney Random Jackson told a jury that Valle had every intention of carrying out his sick plans to abduct, torture and eat dozens of women.

'Make no mistake,' he said on Monday. 'Gilbert Valle was very serious about these plans.'

But Gatto argued the opposite - that her client 'never intended to kidnap anyone.'

'You can't convict people for their thoughts, even if they're sick.'

The officer had attempted to contact potential victims, including a New York City elementary school teacher, to learn more about their jobs and residences, the prosecutor said earlier.

His Internet research also included the best rope to tie someone up with, recipes, human flesh, white slavery and chemicals that can knock someone out, Jackson said.

Gatto countered that there was 'no proof of a crime here. The charges are pure fiction.'

Connected: FBI agents arrested the two men after investigating former New York police officer Gilberto Valle (pictured) who was found guilty last month of plotting to kidnap, cook and kill women

Warped: The websites visited by Valle contained images of women with apples in their mouths

Valle, she said, had always been aroused by 'unusual things' including the thought of a woman boiled down on a platter with an apple in her mouth, his lawyer said.

He found a home at darkfetishnet.com with its 38,000 registered members, where regulars discuss 'suffocating women, cooking and eating them,' she said.

The baby-faced tabloid sensation is expected to launch his own personal defense when he takes the stand on Tuesday by saying that his online chats were so offensive and so over-the-top that they couldn't possibly be for real.

He is expected to argue that if the countless people who visit fetish chat rooms were real cannibals, then where's the horrific feeding frenzy?

Valle, a 28-year-old college graduate and father, was just another NYPD patrolman until late last year, when he was charged with conspiring to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database.

Beyond the tabloid headlines that blared 'Finest Young Cannibal' and 'Cook 'em Danno,' the accusations were startling and serious: The FBI, following a tip from Valle's estranged wife, unearthed an alleged plot to cook and eat dozens of women, all graphically detailed in a trail of emails, computer files and instant messages.

Fighting his corner: Valle's attorney Julia Gatto (pictured) immediately began mounting a defense to highlight her client's depravity, to drive home the argument that his only appetite was for fantasies

Prosecution case: A passage of a Federal complaint filed in New York against Valle

Horrifying: The complaint shows Valle's in-depth plans for the kidnapping and killings of the potential victims

A conviction on the kidnapping count carries a possible life sentence.

'I'm planning on getting me some girl meat,' he allegedly wrote in one chat room. 'It's this November, for Thanksgiving. ... She's not a volunteer. She has to be abducted.'

Another purported target was an 18-year-old high school student who Valle wrote was 'the most desirable piece of meat I've ever met' and was small enough to fit in his oven.

A criminal complaint claimed that Valle had created a computer file cataloging at least 100 women with their names, addresses and photos. And it accused him of illegally culling some of the information from the restricted law enforcement database, and doing surveillance on some of his potential victims.

A New Jersey man also was charged with scheming with Valle to kidnap, rape and murder a Manhattan woman and is awaiting trial. He too says he intended no harm.

At a bail hearing, prosecutors insisted Valle was a would-be killer who should be jailed without bail. A judge agreed, calling the charges 'profoundly disturbing' and 'the most depraved, most dangerous conduct that can be imagined.'

'Discovered': Kathleen Mangan, 28, pictured with her husband, was offered up to a Pakistani man to be cooked and eaten

Harrowing: Valle (pictured) allegedly discussed how to kill a woman by slowly cooking her over emails with co-conspirators, who may have now included Asch and Meltz

Rather than deny the depravity, Valle's defense attorney Julia Gatto immediately began mounting a defense to highlight it, to drive home the argument that Valle's only appetite was for fantasies.

'The government's case is nothing more than a hard drive full of disturbing, sexually deviant talk between my client and other men who share his, albeit weird, proclivities,' she said.

The defense has been bolstered by pretrial rulings that will allow Valle's lawyers to call expert witnesses expected to give jurors a tutorial on online sexual deviance and fetishes often called 'vore,' short for carnivore.

A clinical sexologist will testify about sexually explicit websites that 'resemble improvisational theater,' court papers say. 'The style is to maintain the repartee, regardless of how implausible, ridiculous or even impossible the conversations get.'

A forensic psychiatrist and criminologist who examined Valle and contends most men 'who have sexually sadistic fantasies ... engage in no harmful actions toward others,' the papers say.

The witness found that Valle has no serious mental illness or personality disorders related to violence. Instead, he says, the defendant has recurring fantasies of sexual sadism - a condition known as paraphilia.

Officer: Valle worked at the New York Police Department's 29th precinct

Scene: FBI searched his apartment in Forest Hills, Queens (pictured) and allegedly found lists of women on his home computer. One file was named: 'Abducting and Cooking [victim's name]: A Blueprint'

The jury also will be shown the videotaped testimony of a Moscow man who created darkfetishnet.com. He's expected to testify that he modeled his website after Facebook so those with similar sexual fantasies could share their interests.

The site claims more than 38,000 members and cautions that it 'is for all fantasies, not real death.' A 38-year-old member from the United States says in his profile that he enjoys 'the thought of torturing girls in the most horrific ways. I've been a freak since my early teens and I don't see this changing.'

During jury selection, the defense quizzed candidates on whether they have a bias against people who frequent websites depicting sadomasochistic behavior.

At trial's end, Valle's fate will rest with a jury of six men and six women, most of whom are college-educated and have lived in Manhattan or New York's suburbs most of their lives. One collects antiques. Two are amateur musicians.

A 50-year-old woman on the jury wrote of her film preferences: 'Without my husband, horror movies; with my husband, everything else.'

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