A 27-year-old German construction laborer who met around 150 women in Internet chat rooms went on trial in Germany on Wednesday charged with murdering two of them. Dubbed “Germany’s First Internet Murderer” in the press, he has confessed to the killings, but denies he’s a serial killer.

Christian Grotheer, 27, admitted he had killed two women he met online, but claimed the first death was an accident and the second was after the victim accused him of being a rapist, which resulted in an uncontrollable fit of rage that stemmed from his traumatic childhood. He used the online nicknames “Rosenboy0207″ or “Riddick300″ in the chat rooms, the latter after a fictional serial killer in the movie Pitch Black. He spent tens of thousands of hours on dating sites, going on dates with 100 of women, two of them ending dead.

“I spent whole nights in these chat rooms and I saw them as my family”, he said, “From my point of view the Internet was the ideal way to meet people because you get talking to people very quickly and almost all visitors, male and female, are looking for sexual contact.”

Mr. Grotheer is accused of stabbing to death Jessica K., 26, on June 5, 2008, and Regina B., 39, 12 days later. With the first woman, who went by the Web name “babylove,” Mr. Grotheer said he got into a heated argument, during which he only “touched her on the throat” when she suddenly dropped dead, his lawyer said. Her corpse was found 14 days later. The prosecution alleges that he stabbed her in the back.

In the second case, Spiegel Online reported that after the two had sex at her apartment, she cooked a meal for them and they went for a walk. However, Mr. Grotheer allegedly knocked her over by a field, stabbing her 12 times in the back and 14 times in the chest with a knife. Her body was discovered the next day by a passerby, Spiegel said.

Christian G. was taken into care a number of times during his childhood as a result of his father’s behavior. He then started taking drugs and claims Internet chatting helped him recover from his addiction.
“I can still remember my mother’s cries for help,” Christian G. said, adding that anger and fear had driven him to kill. He said he couldn’t remember details of the deed.
“I felt remote controlled. I can only say that if Regina hadn’t said things like that to me, and especially if she hadn’t called me a rapist, she would definitely be alive today.”

-articles by Julia Jüttner and Agence France-Presse, rewritten and adapted by admin-