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Sadomasochist found guilty of murdering London police officer Sadomasochist found guilty of murdering London police officer
(35 minutes later)
A sadomasochist has been found guilty of the murder of an off duty police officer after his victims remains were found dismembered and decomposing in his south London flat. A crystal meth user who was obsessed with Breaking Bad has been found guilty of murdering a police officer whom he had invited to his flat for a drug-fuelled sex session.
Stefano Brizzi, 50, was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Monday of the murder of 59-year-old Gordon Sempl. The officer’s body was discovered at Brizzi’s Sothwark home in April, a week after the constable was reported missing. Stefano Brizzi, 50, strangled Gordon Semple and dissolved his body in acid in a bath, mirroring a method of disposal employed by Walter White, the lead character in the hit US TV series.
In a gruesome trial, Brizzi, who is Italian, was accused of murdering Semple, who had served with the Metropolitan police for 30 years, after inviting him round to his property for drug-fuelled sex. Brizzi cooked other parts of the 59-year-old officer’s body, and possible bite marks were found on a rib, leading the prosecution to accuse him of cannibalism.
Brizzi had admitted dismembering and disposing of the officer’s body, but had claimed his death was an accident. But a jury found that the killer, a fan of the TV series Breaking Bad, had in fact strangled Semple to death during bondage sex and attempted to dispose of the body in an acid bath. Brizzi admitted dismembering and disposing of Semple’s body but claimed that the officer, who served in the Metropolitan police force for 30 years, died accidentally during a sex game after a dog leash around his neck slipped.
The former Morgan Stanley IT developer was found guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to two after the jury had deliberated for more than 30 hours. He will be sentenced on 9 December. On Thursday a jury at the Old Bailey convicted the Italian national of murder by a 10-to-two majority.
According to Brizzi, PC Semple died when a dog leash he had been wearing as part of a sex game slipped. But a pathologist concluded that while strangulation was a possible cause of death, it would have taken minutes rather than moments, as the defendant had claimed. Brizzi, a former web developer who lost his job at Morgan Stanley as a result of his crystal meth addiction, broke down a number of times during the trial as the prosecution detailed the gruesome nature of the allegations. He showed no emotion as the jury returned its verdict.
Semple’s body was discovered several days after his death when neighbours complained about the stench coming from Brizzi’s flat. Brizzi, a crytal meth addict who was wearing pink underpants and sunglasses when officers raided his flat, was arrested after body parts were discovered in his bath and kitchen. Semple went to Brizzi’s flat in Southwark, south London, on 1 April after the pair made contact on Grindr and the police officer, who was supposed to be on duty, messaged Brizzi to say he was “free now for [a] hot dirty sleazy session”.
The police officer’s partner, Gary Meeks, made more than 20 unanswered calls to Semple’s mobile phone on that evening and, when he failed to return home, reported him missing the next morning.
But Semple’s body was not discovered until 7 April when officers were called to Brizzi’s flat after neighbours complained about the smell. There they found human remains in the bath, which was filled with acid, as well as in plastic buckets on the bathroom floor.
Brizzi initially confessed to deliberately killing Semple, telling police at the scene: “Satan told me to.” But he later changed his account, claiming it was an accident.
Malcolm McHaffie, the deputy chief crown prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service in London, said: “Stefano Brizzi is an evil and calculating man who intentionally killed Gordon Semple and then made gruesome attempts to dispose of his body.
“He cynically lied to the court and the jury, claiming that Mr Semple’s tragic death was caused when a sex game went horribly wrong and that he had taken drugs which caused him to try to cover up the death. This was all fabricated by Brizzi to evade justice.
“In taking steps to fully understand Brizzi’s lifestyle, we scrutinised many thousands of social media messages. Piecing together the events of that evening was equally challenging, bearing in mind the extreme lengths that Brizzi went to to remove traces of his crime and cover his tracks.
“However, built on the foundation of a strong police investigation, and detailed toxicology and pathology evidence, we put a very strong case before the court and Brizzi has now been brought to justice for his terrible crimes. We hope that the outcome provides some comfort to friends and family of Mr Semple.”