i felt like god.chessboard killer says

THE Russian supermarket worker found guilty of murdering 48 people told his trial on today he felt like God as he decided if his victims should live or die.

"Everything I said in court was absolutely true. I took the most valuable thing, human life," Alexander Pichushkin told the court after the judge invited him to make a final statement before he is sentenced next week.

"I didn't take anything else of value from them. Money, jewellery, I didn't need it. I felt like God."

A jury found Pichushkin guilty on Wednesday on 48 counts of murder and three of attempted murder.

In court today, he said he was responsible for killing a total of 63 people.

Police are investigating his claim about the additional murders.

Russian media have dubbed 33-year-old the "chessboard killer" because he told detectives he hoped to put a coin on every space of a 64-square chess board for each of his victims.

"I have spent some 500 days in jail and all that time a lot of people have been deciding my fate," he said from a glass cage on one side of the courtroom.

"Cops, lawyers, experts, witness. I alone decided the fate of 63 people. I was the judge, jury and prosecutor. I decided who would live and who would die. I did all of your functions by myself."