The Cannibal Cop was hungry.
“I’ve been waiting for 21 months to have a home-cooked meal!’’ former Police Officer Gilberto Valle, 30, told me, seconds after he walked out of court a free man — for now.
In a strange case of lust for female flesh — at least the fantasy kind — the famished, dimwitted deviant was convicted of a kidnapping conspiracy last year after he chatted online with like-minded ghouls.
Valle shared with male strangers his vivid daydreams about kidnapping and broiling, frying or slow-roasting unwitting damsels on spits.
But for the time being, he’ll just have to settle for his mom’s rice and beans.
“We’re Hispanic,’’ said Valle. “My mother makes really good rice and beans.’’
The Cannibal Cop agreed to talk to me because he’d heard through family members and people in the jail that I was the only person, apart from his federal public defenders and relatives, to argue that he was a harmless nutjob, prosecuted for indulging in unappetizing thought crimes.
Every day, people all over the world immerse their fevered brains in Internet role-play without being threatened with serious prison time. Even cops have the right to act like imbeciles, don’t they?
“I’m pretty good,’’ he said of his own culinary skills, when we discussed how, astonishingly, he was put to work cooking for jail employees inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan, where he’s been held since his 2012 arrest.
“I cooked for workers, just lunch. Burgers, pizza, whatever they gave, I put together.’’ Still, I think I’ll pass on any Valle-cooked grub.
Elizabeth Valle’s home in Queens where she cooked up the “Cannibal Cop’s” favorite meal: rice and beans.Matthew McDermott
Valle minimized the Internet antics that cost him his job with the NYPD, his marriage, the company of his 2-year-old daughter and could have gotten him locked up for the rest of his life as “just very infantile conduct.’’
“The more I got involved, the more people got involved with my stories, the further I went. It was just something to do at night. Just something stupid I did at night.’’
Some men stupidly spend their nights watching TV. Others drink to excess or cavort with random women. Valle stayed home, planning elaborate meals — made from humans.
“I just want people to know out there — anyone I hurt, offended or terrified by my actions — I’m sorry,’’ he said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about them.’’
Valle, whose wife, Kathleen Mangan, fled the Queens apartment they shared with their now-2-year-old daughter before his arrest, and divorced him, plans to ask for the legal right to be reunited with his little one.
I asked if he was done with his cannibalistic pastime.
“Absolutely!’’ Valle said, but then quickly added, “That’s more complicated.’’
Old habits must be hard to break.
Gilberto Valle is no Hannibal Lecter. I don’t want to be married to this guy, and it’s best that he’s no longer enforcing the law. But his crimes are all in his head.