A French notorious cannibal, who killed a farmer and then cooked his tongue and heart with white beans, has briefly managed to escape custody before attacking a woman.
Jeremy Rimbaud (34-year-old) was a former soldier in Afghanistan. He grabbed his victim in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday.
‘She was absolutely terrified,’ said an investigating source.
Jeremy Rimbaud (pictured being led out of a van in 2013) is known as the ‘The Cannibal of the Pyrenees’ to the French press. He ran away from his custody, and then attacked a woman who was walking her dog.
‘The lady was out walking her dog close to the center of the city when Rimbaud struck.
‘He punched her in the back of the head and then hit here with a stick, before passers-by intervened, and chased him off.
It was only later that she was told that she had been attacked by a known cannibal.’
Rimbaud was released to his secure psychiatric unit, where he had been since 2011.
In June that year, the corporal returned to Afghanistan from his tour of duty fighting Taliban.
He murdered Leopold Pedebidau, a 90 year-old farmer, in Nouilhan west of Toulouse on November 14th and then chopped his body up.
Prosecution papers later described how Rimbaud ‘cut out his victim’s tongue and a piece of his heart, to cook them with white beans.’
The man told investigators that he was hearing voices and messages telling him to kill an elderly gentleman.
Rimbaud was an Afghanistan veteran who suffered from post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Rimbaud was found guilty of eating the tongue and heart of an 80-year-old man in November.
According to The Local, the former soldier had only left the army two weeks prior.
Rimbaud was eventually caught when he attempted to kill another farmer by using an iron barre after pushing against a tractor.
He later became known as ‘The Cannibal of the Pyrenees’ after being sentenced to life in prison for murder.
Rimbaud was ‘diagnosed with schizophrenia and was suffering from post-traumatic shock linked to his fighting in Afghanistan.’
To give him courage, he took ketamine along with other French soldiers while he was at the front.
After five years of service in the marine infantry tank unit based at Poitiers, he decided to stay in Cyprus to undergo a psychological assessment.
His lawyer, Maître Françoise Séles, called Rimbaud a victim of the Afghanistan war.
A local police spokesman said on Friday: ‘The convicted killer has been returned to custody.’
An inquiry is being conducted to find out the reason he was able to escape.