[imagesource: Associated Press]

In the case of Nicolas Gil Pereg, red flags abound.

For example, the Israeli national once went by the name ‘Floda Reltih’.

Read that backwards and you’ll see it spells ‘Hitler Adolf’.

Major red flag alert, I think we can agree.

Pereg is currently being charged with killing his mother and aunt in Argentina, where he has been given the nickname the ‘Catman’ or ‘Hombre Gato’.

His jury trial in the city of Mendoza began this week, and things got off to a bumpy start. Below via The Telegraph:

[He] was removed from a courtroom after answering questions from the judge by repeating ‘Meow, meow.’

…[He] also used the cat noise to answer when he was asked for his name and ID number.

Local reports said he pronounced the word ‘meow’ 55 times from the moment he entered the courtroom to the time he was removed.

The judge was understandably unimpressed with Pereg’s conduct. The accused’s defence team argues that he suffers from lycanthropy, a mental disorder that makes someone believe they are an animal, most often a wolf.

Here’s how things played out in court:

Pereg, a former soldier, is alleged to have murdered his two relatives in January 2019 and hidden their bodies on his property.

He lived with an estimated 37 cats, as well as four dogs, in a rundown home on the outskirts of the city of Mendoza.

When authorities found the bodies of his mother and his aunt, they were buried more than four feet underground.

This is not the first time Pereg has acted out in court:

He displayed the same behaviour in February 2020 during a hearing organised by his defence team to try to spare him a remand in prison and get him admitted to hospital.

A senior prosecutor said at the time he saw no reason why he should be sent to a hospital psychiatric wing.

As well as meowing repeatedly like a cat, Pereg is also said to have stripped his clothes off and even urinated in front of magistrates during previous court hearings.

40-year-old Pereg initially reported his two relatives missing, stating that he believed they have gone to Chile.

After a search that went on for longer than two weeks, their bodies were found.

Autopsies carried out on the bodies showed that his mother had been beaten to death and his aunt strangled.

Pereg had previously asked if he could have his cats with him in the psychiatric hospital where he is being held.

It’s expected that his lawyers will ask the court to declare him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

[source:telegraph]