Karl Hutchings, 48, struck Julie Buckley with a hammer at her home in March, Cambridgeshire, on January 29, 2025. Eleven blows to the skull, according to the autopsy. The two were friends, shared a drug addiction, and he had just been released from a psychiatric unit three months earlier.
After killing her, Hutchings cut her body into ten pieces. He even thought about eating her. He was obsessed with Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal, and said he would be “the best” actor to play him because he “wouldn’t need to practice”. He ultimately decided not to do it, saying he did not want to put a “toxic person” into his body. He buried her in a shallow grave in Wimblington, where she remained for eight months without anyone finding her.
He used Julie’s bank card to buy alcohol and sold her car for 630 dollars. When police found bloodstains on his sofa, everything started to fall apart. Hutchings ended up handing over a hand-drawn map with the body’s exact location. He was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 21 years.
