New York 'cannibal cop' sentenced to time served

NEW YORK - A former New York policeman who had a conviction for plotting to abduct and eat women overturned was sentenced to time served Wednesday on a related charge.

Dubbed the "cannibal cop," 30-year-old Gilberto Valle became a tabloid sensation when his 2013 trial exposing the strange world of cannibal fantasists gripped New York.

A jury found Valle guilty and he faced life in prison, but he walked free from jail earlier this year after a judge overturned his conviction based on a lack of evidence of intent to commit the crime.

"I really want to say I am sorry -- it was not a crime but it was wrong," Valle said outside court after he was sentenced to the 21 months in jail he had already served and one year probation on a minor charge of misusing police resources to search for women in his fantasies.

He added: "My legacy will not be the story of the cannibal cop."

Valle's high-profile trial last year included lurid details of how he sought advice from others in the online "death-porn" community over how to kidnap, kill and eat his wife and friends.