Cannibal who ate his mum jailed

A Russian man who killed and ate parts of his mother has been given a reduced sentence because he was starving and needed to eat.

Sergey Gavrilov, 27, was handed a lighter jail term of 14 years and three months after he confessed to eating his mother's body but said he did not enjoy it, the Daily Mail newspaper reports.

"I did not like the meat very much ... it was too fatty but I was so hungry I had to eat it," the newspaper quoted him as telling a Russian court.

Gavrilov told the court he had no money to buy food after spending it all on alcohol and gambling machines.

When his 55-year-old mother Lyubov refused to lend him more money for alcohol he hit her over the head with a brick and strangled her with an electrical cable.

Gavrilov then put her body outside on the balcony of the family unit where it froze.

He stole his mother's money and went on a two-day drinking binge before he returned to the unit broke and hungry.

Gavrilov grew desperate for food he sliced some meat of his mother's body and made soup and pasta dishes with it.

He was only caught a month later after a policeman who suspected him of stealing a mobile phone arrived at the unit.

The officer found the dead woman still on the balcony but with both of her legs missing.

Under normal circumstances in Russia, Gavrilov would be sentenced to 15 years for his crime but the sentence was reduced by seven months because of his circumstances, the judge said.