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Facebook ‘fans’ drawn to accused killer Luka Magnotta

It's not news that notorious killers attract ghoulish groupies but it's still dismaying to discover that accused murderer Luka Magnotta is rapidly accumulating a fan base.

Magnotta is charged with first-degree murder and numerous other counts in the killing of Chinese university student Jun Lin, whose dismembered body parts were then put in the mail. His torso was dumped as if it was trash and his head is still missing.

The one-time porn actor, escort and would-be reality TV star, is being held in custody until a preliminary hearing next spring.

[ Related: Luka Magnotta's lawyer will have 'unusual challenges' ]

As the National Post reports, Magnotta lived his life online in a quest for fame, which he never achieved until the global manhunt for him as a murder suspect.

I turned up this Facebook page, which is not exactly a fan site but seems set up by someone who claims to have known Magnotta before he burst on the wider world.

"We may not be **fans** of what he did, but I believe in him as a person, and loved him before this all happened ... :-(" says an opening message, apparently from group administrator Tiffiee Da KittyLady. The page had 58 members when I checked it Friday afternoon.

Another Facebook group set up by Allyssa Kerr (why are these "fans" mostly young women?) is "for people who are fastiated (sic) with luka, or anythng that goes against society, and their morals, or who would just want to have sex with him." It has 165 members so far.

The Post noted these "fans" show up for a variety of reasons, some even saying they find the video that allegedly shows Magnotta killing Lin, having sex with the corpse and it cutting to be inspirational.

"I like Luka Magnotta because he is inspirational, nice, and very, very good looking," the Support Luka Magnotta administrator, who says she is Destiney St. Denis, 21, of Saskatoon, said in an email to the Post.

"I have seen the video over 20 times. I do think that was him, and I liked it. He is inspirational because he is not afraid to be himself."

[ Related: Luka Magnotta to face preliminary hearing set for March 2013 ]

St. Denis told the Post she cares nothing about the feelings of victim Jun Lin's family.

"I think that if anyone is a victim in this case, it is Luka … because of all the bullying he had to endure before the murder," she said.

I don't know whether to take St. Denis seriously or whether she's indulging in a high-level exercise in irony.

But some posters on her page seem to express genuine interest in writing to Magnotta and even visiting him.

Police turned up 70 Facebook pages and 20 web sites Magnotta had set up to try and create some buzz about himself before he became a fugitive.

It seems the fame and immortality Magnotta pathetically sought now has been assured.