Satanic murder couple sent to psychiatric hospital
A judge in Germany has ordered a Satanic couple who committed murder to be sent to a psychiatric hospital indefinitely.
Daniel and Manuela Ruda admitted stabbing a friend 66 times, but claimed the Devil ordered them to do it.
At the end of their trial in Bochum, Daniel was also sentenced to 15 years in prison and his wife to 13 years.
The couple admitted killing Frank Haagen, but claimed they were driven to it and it was not murder.
They killed him during a ritual, on a Satanic altar made of skulls and bones in their flat. The 33-year-old was hacked to death with a machete before his head was crushed with a sledgehammer.
Prosecutor Dieter Justinsky rejected calls from the victim's parents for life sentences on the couple, arguing they showed diminished responsibility and were "deeply disturbed".
The Rudas told the court they became Satanists in Britain. Manuela described drinking blood from volunteers she met over the internet.
The couple told police they visited Britain twice, spending five months in Scotland in 1996 and visiting London in February 1997.
Manuela, 23, had animal teeth implanted in her gums to give her the fangs of a vampire during her pursuit of Satanism.
