Ukraine's self-confessed mass murderer, Anatoly Onopriyenko, went on trial in an iron cage yesterday for killing 52 people, a tally he says makes him the world's worst serial killer.
The long-awaited trial of the 39-year-old father got under way in a tense courthouse in the western town of Zhitomir, before a public gallery packed with some 500 spectators. Dressed in sports gear and looking pale and drawn, Onopriyenko was brought into the courthouse with his co-accused Serhi Rogosin (36), who is charged with nine of the murders.
In a calm, monotone voice Onopriyenko told the court he was not a citizen of any state and declared himself a "prisoner of war". He is charged with killing 42 adults and 10 children between 1989 and 1996, a reign of terror which ended only when detectives discovered at his home a stolen hunting rifle that had been used in the killings.
The accused man, who confessed to the killings following his arrest in April 1996, faces death if convicted, although as a member of the Council of Europe, Ukraine has vowed to abolish capital punishment.
Onopriyenko told investigators he was "accomplishing a mission," guided by a "supreme force."
The trial began with a detailed account of Onopriyenko's troubled past, which included the loss of his mother when aged four and his upbringing in a orphanage.