BRITISH HANNIBAL LECTER

Self-described ‘Hannibal Lecter’ kills wife, chops up body over French fries fight

 

By Yaron Steinbuch

 

New York Post

March 31, 2021

 

 

                   Thomas and Yvonne McCann in happier times

 

A self-described “Hannibal Lecter” murdered his wife of 24 years and dismembered her body after a fight about a bag of French fries — and has been sentenced to a minimum of 13 years behind bars, according to a report.

Monster husband Thomas McCann, 49, admitted strangling his “childhood sweetheart” Yvonne, 46, at their Stockport home in May 2020, the BBC reported.

The couple, who had four children, had argued about the fires that had been left out of the fridge, the Manchester Crown Court heard.

After being arrested, McCann said he was “Hannibal Lecter,” the cannibalistic serial killer in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

“I killed my wife and disposed of her like garbage,” he told investigators, adding that he “lost control and could not stop.”

Parts of Yvonne’s body were discovered by dog walkers in Reddish Vale Country Park two days after the horrific crime.

The last sign from the woman before her grisly demise came in a text message she sent to a neighbor referring to the quarrel about fries.

McCann was captured on surveillance video leaving their home to collect items from his employer’s truck and carrying trash bags to his car, the BBC reported.

He also used his wife’s cell phone to reply to texts from their children and said she walked out after their argument.

The couple’s relationship went sour after she started a relationship with another man around 2013, the BBC reported. He claimed to have last seen Yvonne after dropping her off near the home of her new partner.

When he was arrested, he had scratches to his cheek, arms and hands, according to the report.

Prosecutor Andrew Smith cited the cause of the attack as “some frozen chips,” using the UK term for French fries.

“During that argument it is now clear that the defendant attacked Yvonne, strangled her to death in the bathroom and thereafter he dismembered her body in the bath,” he said.

During sentencing, Judge Alan Conrad told the truck driver: “Your actions after the killing amount to serious aggravating factors.

“The defense suggest a combination of self-interest and panic, but what you did makes a terrible case even more horrific and even more upsetting to those concerned,” he said.

“Yvonne McCann was a woman with a great deal to live for and a great deal to look forward to when her life was so cruelly cut short by you,” Conrad added.

The couple’s daughter Rachel Lawson said in a statement: “We are all really struggling with this. We love our mum very much, we also love our dad.”

Defense lawyer Louise Blackwell said her client had not planned to murder his wife but that the argument “blew up.”