A FRENCH restaurant owner has admitted killing a villager, chopping him up and cooking him with vegetables.

Pizza makers Philippe Schneider, 69, and Nathalie Caboubassy, 45, are facing trial in Aveyron for the 2023 murder of Georges Meichler, a resident of their quiet southern French village, Brasc.

Schneider made the “horrific confession” to police after being tracked down following a missing persons report filed by the victim’s daughter.

He told officers the pair accidentally killed Meichler, 57, when their attempt to burgle his home went awry.

Desperate to cover up the murder, they tried to dispose of the body by cutting it up with a butcher’s knife and hiding body parts around the area.

Body parts were spread across the Causses and Rougier regions of south France, and other bits left in the victim’s van.

Schneider admitted to cooking parts of the body in a pot with vegetables at his home, reportedly as part of a religious ritual he learned about while traveling in Nepal.

Charred bones were found near Meichler’s house, and human remains not far from the alleged killers‘ apartment building.

A 25-year-old grave digger, also on trial as an accomplice to the pair, reportedly stated that Schneider instructed him to cook the meat until it “falls off the bones” and, if questioned, to say it was “food for the dog”.

Meichler’s lived as a recluse – without water or electricity – in a small stone house in the middle of a forest.

Police began their investigations after his ex-partner raised the alarm because she hadn’t heard from him.

His daughter also received a text from his phone which read: “Hi. I’m heading to Brittany with a friend. Get some fresh air and see the country. See you when I get back. Have a nice day.”

The message immediately rang alarm bells with the daughter, because her father rarely sent text messages and would use a very different tone if he did.

Police then launched a missing persons investigation in Brasc – where neighbours said they had not seen him for several days.

Door-to-door enquiries revealed locals had seen two people driving around in the dead man’s Citroën Jumpy van.

After linking restaurateur couple to the van, police tracked their movements and phone conversations.

The vehicle was eventually found outside a council building in Camarès – around 24 miles from Brasc – with the restaurateur couple at the wheel.

Schneider claimed that the missing Meichler had entrusted him with the car in order to feed his chickens in the house he had been renovating.

But when police searched the van they found bags of human remains and blood.

Schneider then admitted to the murdering, butchering and cooking the gentle Meichler, explaining it had been a burglary gone wrong.

He told investigators: “What I’m about to tell you is horrific, it’s going to be difficult to hear,” before revealing the sordid tale.

According to France3 Schneider’s lawyer, Luc Abratkiewicz, said: “They cut up the body, they cooked it in a mess tin, and then they burned the rest. It’s crude, but that’s how it is.

“It’s mainly about explaining the act, the motive, which is trivial, a few thousand euros, and then you sink into the horror.

“Philippe Schneider acknowledges his full responsibility and all the facts he is accused of.

“Philippe Schneider’s version is that at the time he lived a life of alcohol, drugs, and then this completely crazy idea of going to burgle his neighbour.

“He gags him. It goes badly, he dies.”

Former partners describe Schneider as a manipulator and a pervert who coerced them and pushed them to go to sex clubs.

And experts who examined him concluded he was “marked by a need for control and domination” and “often engaged in manipulation and control over others”.

Addicted to alcohol and cannabis, Schneider was reportedly traumatised by the sexual abuse he claims to have suffered as a child.

He was arrested alongside Caboubassy – who has always insisted she played no part.

Caboubassy and the grave digger are on trial for complicity in the crime.

The verdict is expected on May 22.