Man jailed for life after killing policeman during bondage session


Source: Metro.co.uk.


UK – A man who strangled a police officer during a bondage sex session and then attempted to cook and eat parts of his body has been jailed for a minimum of 24 years.

Stefano Brizzi, 50, admitted he was inspired by his favourite TV series Breaking Bad as he tried to get away with killing 59-year-old Pc Gordon Semple by dissolving his flesh in an acid bath.

The former Morgan Stanley IT developer was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey after the jury deliberated for more than 30 hours last month.

Brizzi denied trying to cannibalise parts of Pc Semple by cooking and then biting into a rib found in his kitchen bin.

But at his sentencing, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC confirmed that an odontologist had found that Brizzi had eaten part the body of his victim after matching a bite mark on a rib discarded in the kitchen bin with the defendant’s lower teeth.

The trial had heard that Brizzi met his victim on gay dating app Grindr and arranged a ‘hot, dirty, sleazy session’ at his flat near London’s Tate Modern gallery on April 1.

In the days after the killing, Brizzi was caught on CCTV buying buckets, a perforated metal sheet and cleaning products from a DIY store.

He then set about dismembering the body, stripping the flesh, burning some in the oven and mixing some with acid in the bath.

Brizzi, who has HIV, told police that he had ‘chucked’ some of Pc Semple’s body into the Thames and thrown away his police badge and belongings.

A human foot was later found by a member of Thames Mudlark Club near Bermondsey Wall.

Pc Semple’s long-term partner, Gary Meeks, reported him missing when he failed to return to their home in Dartford, Kent.

In mitigation, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC blamed Brizzi’s crystal meth addiction as she accepted the expert evidence.

She said: ‘The behaviour can only be ascribed to taking of the drug cystal meth, which, as the court will know, has appalling effects on those who become addicted to it.’

Brizzi had ‘absolutely no recollection’ of it and was ‘utterly horrified by it’, the barrister added.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC sentenced the 50-year-old to a minimum of 24 years in prison and seven years for obstructing a coroner, which will run concurrently.

The judge said: ‘Regret you express now for Mr Semple’s death has to be seen against what you did over a number of days to his body.’

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