Accused killer Magnotta back on Canadian soil

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/06/2012 (5074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Luka Rocco Magnotta quietly left Canada last month as a little-known porn actor and prostitute with a penchant for self-promotion on the Internet.

He returned in a military plane Monday, his hands and feet shackled during the flight. Armed guards watched as he disembarked, a media helicopter buzzing overhead. He was escorted down into a police convoy and whisked away to face charges including first-degree murder.

During his month-long European sojourn, Magnotta became the suspect in a crime so brutal it made him the target of an international manhunt; the long-time attention-seeker was apparently reading news stories about himself when arrested in a German Internet café.

He arrived back in Canada just before 7 p.m. Monday.

A convoy of vehicles with flashing lights rolled out to meet the 29-year-old suspect at Mirabel airport, north of Montreal. A half-dozen men escorted him down the stairs off the plane, onto the tarmac, and into a minivan at the centre of a convoy that included motorcycles and police vehicles.

Armed guards monitored the transfer, at least one of whom carried an assault weapon. Magnotta was seen wearing handcuffs when he landed, and his feet had also been bound during the flight.

His fellow passengers on the military transport aircraft included officials and law enforcement from Canada and Germany. Police said there was no trouble at all from the passenger wearing running shoes, a pale green T-shirt and shackles.

Authorities said they were grateful the federal government had made a military plane available for the extradition. “How can we bring him back to Montreal on a commercial flight with other people sitting on board?” said Montreal police Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière, when asked about the use of a federal transport plane.

“For very extraordinary cases, we do have to take some extraordinary measures.”

Police said Magnotta could face a judge as early as today. It was unclear whether his Montreal court appearance would be in person or by teleconference, they added. Local investigators were planning to start interrogating him Monday night.

As the gory case moved back to Canada, authorities in Germany were breathing a sigh of relief.

“We are glad that he’s gone,” said Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin’s prosecutor’s office, on Monday. “(There’s) a lot of trouble in this case.”

The stomach-churning details of the Montreal slaying, and the subsequent international police search, whipped up a storm of media interest around the world.

Magnotta was arrested in a Berlin Internet café after Montreal police issued a warrant for his alleged connection to last month’s killing and dismemberment of Montreal university student Jun Lin.

— The Canadian Press