(MCT) NEW YORK — A federal jury in Manhattan on Tuesday convicted police officer Gilberto Valle of conspiracy to kidnap and eat women, stunning Valle, his family and a defense team that relentlessly argued he had engaged only in crude online role-playing fantasies.

Six-year New York Police Department veteran Valle, 28, flinched, lurched forward and held his head when the guilty verdict was read. Later, he cried and hugged his lawyer. His mother Elizabeth, her face soaked with rain and tears leaving the courthouse, said she was “shocked.”