Cat-Like Murder Suspect Says He Wanted Kids With Own Mum

Story ByAna LacasaSub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyCEN

Video Credit: CEN

The lawyer of the murder suspect filmed sitting naked on his prison bed and snarling like a cat has denied his client killed his mum and his aunt because he says the man wanted to “have a child” with his own mother.

Lawyer Maximiliano Legrand, whose client Israeli national Gilad Gil Pereg, 37, has been charged with murdering his own mother and aunt, says on his last visit to Pereg that the suspect denies committing the crime, saying he would never kill his mum “because he wanted to have a child with his mother through artificial insemination”.

Legrand has previously said that his client appears to be suffering from serious mental health issues and needs proper treatment rather than being held behind bars in prison.

Pictures Credit: CEN

And the lawyer says the latest claims from Pereg shows the “visible deterioration of Gilard, as every day it is more clear the level of delirium he is suffering”.

Pereg has been charged with strangling his mother, Pyrhia Saroussy, 63, to death and shooting dead his aunt, Lily Pereg, 54, before burying their bodies at his home in the Buena Nueva district of the city of Mendoza in western Argentina.

He has since been held in isolation in jail where guards say he has taken to acting like a cat and demanding to be called ‘Nicolas’.

Mr Legrand previously said: “This is a person who needs appropriate treatment and that can only happen in a psychiatric hospital. We are looking at someone who is mentally ill and who should not be in prison.”

The lawyer, along with his colleagues Marcos Segovia and Lautaro Brachete, has now met with the judge Sebastian Sarmiento who ordered a new psychiatric test of the suspect.

However, Legrand believes the judge “infringed on the rights of defence in the trial” as he did not allow the lawyers to propose their own psychiatrist.

Pereg’s feline-like behaviour in prison reportedly extends to defecating on the ground, refusing to wash, licking himself clean and walking around his cell naked on all fours.

One guard, who asked not to be named, said: “When he poos in the cell, he picks it up and uses it to write the names of his cats on the wall.”

Smartphone footage shot by a guard shows Pereg sitting naked on his bed as his cell door is opened for him to be taken to see the prison doctor.

When the guard asks if he is going to put on his clothes, Pereg snarls at him and scratches at the air like an angry cat.

Police say Pereg had more than 20 cats and five dogs at his home, while two dead cats had been stuffed and put on display. He is said to be highly intelligent – with an IQ of 180 – but his behaviour is irrational.

Cops say his house was filthy, littered with rubbish and porn magazines, and it seemed he had survived on cat food and diet supplements.

So far, Pereg remains in prison where he is awaiting a trial on two counts of murder.