A French inmate went on trial Monday and gave a gruesome confession, admitting to a judge that he killed his cellmate before cutting out his lung and eating it.

39-year-old Nicolas Cocaign appeared in court on charges of murder and acts of barbarism and told prosecutors that he killed Thierry Baudry on January 3, 2007.

The admittedly mentally ill man told prosecutors that he beat his victim with his fists before stabbing him with scissors and suffocating him with a plastic bag.

He then says he cut open Baudry's chest and ate a part of his lung, which he mistook for the man's heart, before taking out another piece and frying it for dinner on a makeshift grill.

When asked why he ate part of the man, Cocagin told prosecutors that he “wanted to take his soul” and said, “I was curious to see what he tasted like.”

At the time he was serving a prison sentence for rape while armed while Baudry was in prison for sexual assault.

A third man, David Lagrue, was reportedly in the cell at the time of the incident and was so disturbed that he later killed himself according to his former attorney.

An attorney for Cocagin says his client had repeatedly asked to be admitted to a psych ward before the killing but was turned down.

He is currently facing life in prison.