Bird flu vet found guilty of killing man with toothbrush and metal bar in S&M sex session
A former government vet convicted of using an electric toothbrush and metal bar to kill a man as they had S&M sex will be sentenced later.
Kirk Thompson, 46, caused severe internal injuries to David Kochs, 43, at his home in Newcastle, on 2 March last year, after the pair met on a gay dating website.
He covered up the body of Mr Kochs with a duvet and then had sex with another man.
The trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard both men had been taking the drug crystal meth when they engaged in the violent episode and Mr Thompson “enjoyed inflicting pain on others”.
At one point Mr Kochs’ mouth was stapled together as was one nostril with a surgical skin stapler.
Mr Kochs died of severe internal injuries caused after an electric toothbrush and metal bar were forcibly inserted into his body.
Some of the wounds were inflicted after his death.
After arresting him, Thompson told police the men had engaged in “extreme no limits anything goes sex” but he believed Mr Kochs had been asleep and that was why he covered him with the duvet.
In one message he said: “I am cutting, bleeding, piercing a guy on crystal meth” and in another said that he was “having a very extreme scene”.
The jury found him guilty of the manslaughter charge as well as one of actual bodily harm.
Mr Justice Globe said sentencing would take place today.
In other evidence, the court heard Thompson had used the Nazi term “SS” in internet messages with potential partners as part of “a silly game”.
He explained how he had contracted HIV in his third year of his veterinary medicine degree at Edinburgh University, when he was around 22, but did not take a test for another 10 years.
The former vet played a major role in the response to the bird flu outbreak while he worked at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs during 2004-2005.
