A federal appeals court refused to reinstate a guilty verdict against Gilberto Valle, the so-called “cannibal cop” who was put on trial for Internet messages he claimed were mere fantasies about kidnapping and eating women.

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a district judge's decision to throw out the verdict against the former New York City Police officer, who was convicted by jury of conspiracy.

“The mere indulgence of fantasy, even of the repugnant and unsettling kind here, is not, without more, criminal,” said circuit Judges Barrington Parker and Susan Carney, affirming Southern District Judge Paul Gardephe.