Killer 'Inspired by Saw Film' Gets 30 Years

Can Hollywood share the blame for this one? A judge in Britain sentenced a homeless man to at least 30 years yesterday for perpetrating a grisly killing inspired by Saw VI, the Daily Mail reports. The court found that Matthew Tinling, 25, knifed his victim 17 times and tried to sever his spinal cord in a "savage and prolonged" murder—all to get his PIN number and withdraw $365 to buy crack cocaine.

Tinling tried severing the spinal cord "to cause paralysis and death, exactly as you had seen on a DVD," the judge said. "Whether or not that was Saw VI, found by the police in your room, or another in the series doesn't matter. Plainly it was something you had seen and tried to imitate." The victim, a 45-year-old former soldier, lived at a homeless hostel with Tinling and received $300 disability payments every two weeks. "That was to be his ultimate downfall," said a prosecuting attorney. (More murder trial stories.)