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A pornographic model who admitted killing a Chinese student in Canada hid from a global manhunt in the home of an unwitting man he met online, a court has heard.
Luka Magnotta is charged with the murder of overseas engineering student Jun Lin in May 2012, and is accused of dismembering him before mailing the limbs to schools and political parties.
Frank Rubert, a 53-year-old geriatric carer from Berlin, said that he posted an advertisement for a roommate on chat site GayRomeo and that Magnotta answered him, using alias William2323.
He agreed to let him stay in his home after the defendant told him he wanted to leave Paris after a relationship break-up for a new life as an escort in Germany.
Rubert said he met Magnotta on arrival in Berlin and socialised with him despite not being able to speak the same language, however he testified that he had no idea that the guest was being hunted down by Interpol.
He even let him share the sofa bed in his flat for three nights and was surprised that Magnotta did not ask for money, and says that they did not have sex as he was repelled by the model’s greasy long hair and dishevelled appearance.
Rubert said: “He was not my style.”
He discovered that his guest was wanted by international police when he came across a news story in a newspaper he was reading on the subway.
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneShow all 61/6Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime scene
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
A photo entered as eence from the crime scene is shown at the murder trial for Luka Rocco Magnotta in Montreal
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
A photo entered as eence from the crime scene is shown at the murder trial for Luka Rocco Magnotta in Montreal
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
A photo entered as eence from the crime scene is shown at the murder trial for Luka Rocco Magnotta in Montreal
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
Pink tissue paper, which was presented as eence in the trial of Luka Magnotta, is seen in this picture proed by Montreal Police. Packages of body parts, pink papers and hand-drawn black hearts were sent to elementary schools and political parties, according to eence shown in the trial of Canadian man Magnotta who has admitted to killing and dismembering a Chinese student
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
A note on pink paper, which was presented as eence in the trial of Luka Magnotta, is seen in this picture proed by Montreal Police
Luka Magnotta murder trial: Jury shown eence from the crime sceneLuka Magnotta murder trial
A note on pink paper, which was presented as eence in the trial of Luka Magnotta, is seen in this picture proed by Montreal Police
Rubert alerted police and, on 4 June, Magnotta was apprehended by Berlin police at an internet café while reading news stories about himself, and he gave fake names before admitting his real identity.
“On that day I reflected, and thought how stupid was I to let just anybody come into my apartment without knowing what kind of a person this was,” Rubert said.
Although the 32-year-old sex worker admits to killing Lin, 33, he has pleaded not guilty to charges including first-degree murder, committing indignities to a dead body, broadcasting a of the killing and mailing severed body parts.
The defendant’s lawyer said Magnotta, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a teenager, is not criminally responsible because he is mentally ill while the Canadian government says he planned the killing for six months.
Magnotta is also accused of harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several unnamed members of Parliament.
Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman and has undergone numerous plastic surgery procedures to his face.
The trial continues.
