Killer vet who bludgeoned man with toothbrush and metal bar in S&M sex session gets 10 years
A former government vet who killed a man during a drug-fuelled sex session has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
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.
At one point Mr Kochs’ mouth was stapled together as was one nostril with a surgical skin stapler.
Thompson made the cuts using surgical equipment he had acquired from his veterinary background.
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.
The trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard both men had been taking the drug crystal meth when they engaged in the violent episode and Thompson “enjoyed inflicting pain on others”.
Earlier this week the jury found him guilty of the manslaughter and a charge of actual bodily harm.
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Globe sentenced him to 10 years, with a five year extended licence period.
He said: “What you did to David Kochs was unusual, exceptional and undoubtedly dangerous and unlawful.”
After Mr Kochs collapsed, Thompson boasted online: “I’m having such an extreme night.
“I don’t believe what I’m doing.”
He then had sex with another man he had been in contact with online as the body of Mr Kochs lay in the flat.
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.
But he left the department after suffering from a mental breakdown over his HIV status.
Detective Chief Inspector Ged Noble, from Northumbria Police, said the investigation involved “delving into the most intimate details of people’s lives”.
He said: “It has absolutely not been about sexual orientation or about criminalising consensual sexual behaviour, it has been about an individual who would go to the extreme to satisfy his own desires with no regard whatsoever for the person he was with.
“Kirk Thompson is a sadistic and arrogant individual who took complete advantage of David Kochs to inflict violent injuries on him for his own sexual gratification and, as a result, caused his death.”
Mr Kochs’ family said in a statement: “For us there was only ever one outcome for someone who had inflicted such violent and physical force against David who was unable to defend himself.
“David was a fun-loving, happy, kind and caring son, brother, nephew and uncle who loved and was very much loved by us all.”
