Chef ‘hacks girlfriend to death and leaves organs next to body with UK passport’

Jozef Hanuska is accused of murdering Patricia and arranging her body in a sickening display

A chef in Slovakia has been charged with murdering and disemboweling his girlfriend before setting her remains out in a gruesome display.

Jozef Hanuska, 47, allegedly inflicted a slew of horrific cuts on the 48-year-old woman, who has been named only as Patricia, in her apartment in the capital of Bratislava.

She was found dead on Thursday lying naked on her bed with gashes on her neck, cheek and thigh, while her chest had been ‘opened’, according to local media.

Several of her organs and a piece of her thigh were said to have been cut out and placed in a bucket next to the bed, and her heart was found nearby on the floor.

Her body had been covered with a blanket, which had a British passport placed on top of it.

Hanuska, who was arrested on Friday, was reportedly found hiding in a cellar elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

Neighbours said the accused and Patricia could often be heard screaming at each other and both often appeared to be heavily drunk.

Hanuska was said to have been found hiding in a cellar after the murder

According to Slovakian broadcaster Noviny, he is the son of a double murderer nicknamed the Bratislava Strangler, Štefan Pantl.

Pantl was convicted and executed in 1979 after strangling to death two women he had met at a party and brought back to his flat.

Hanuska is said to have trained as a butcher before becoming a private chef hired to cook for people in their apartments.

A website advertising the 47-year-old’s services states: ‘Cooking delicious classic dishes, sometimes even in a modern version, is my specialty.

The victim and the accused were reportedly often heard drunkenly rowing

‘I cook wherever there is food. Yes, you read that right. I’m a cook for the carriage, but also for the wagon.

‘Wherever I’m called, I’m happy to come and cook delicious classics that I know but also in a modern way.’

Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Caputova, condemned Patricia’s murder as a ‘heinous and reprehensible act’.

In a Facebook post she wrote: ‘I was very saddened by the news about the brutal murder of 48-year-old Patrícia in Ružinov, Bratislava, who, according to media reports, suffered from serious intimate partner violence.

Hanuska has been charged with murder by authorities in Slovakia

‘I am very sorry and express my sincere condolences to the family and close friends.

‘It is unacceptable that such the most tragic forms of violence against women occur repeatedly in our country.’