TV plot inspired acid bath body bid, court told

Victim died after sex game went wrong – accused

A Breaking Bad-obsessed sadomasochist strangled a police officer, then copied a plot from the hit American drama by dissolving his body in an acid bath, a court has heard.

PC Gordon Semple, 59, was on duty when he arranged to meet his alleged killer, Stefano Brizzi, via Grindr for “hot, dirty, sleazy” sex on April 1.

The 50-year-old Italian was allegedly in the middle of throttling him when he turned away another man who had arrived for a drug-fuelled sex party.

Neighbours on the Peabody Estate in south London then noticed a “revolting smell” coming from Brizzi’s flat.

When one complained, Brizzi put it down to cooking for a friend, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

By April 7, a resident alerted police, who visited the flat and found Brizzi and a bath full of acid with “globules of flesh” floating in it, the court heard.

Brizzi allegedly told an officer: “I’ve tried to dissolve the body ... I’ve killed a police officer. I killed him last week. I met him on Grindr and I killed him. Satan told me to.”

However, jurors were told that the defendant was not claiming a psychiatric defence and now says PC Semple died accidentally during a “sex game gone wrong”.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors the case called for “broad minds and strong stomachs”.

PC Semple had been in a relationship but was “sexually promiscuous” and used Grindr for “extreme” encounters of “domination, bondage and much else besides”, he said.

On the day of the killing, PC Semple and Brizzi had invited more men to join them for a sex party with drugs available but only one man – referred to as CD – turned up, jurors were told.

Mr Aylett said: “When CD pressed the entry buzzer, someone who can only have been the defendant replied over the intercom ‘We are having a situation here. Someone fell ill but we’re taking care of it. So our party is cancelled’. CD turned around and went home.”

Brizzi was said to be “obsessed” with the American show Breaking Bad, jurors were told.

Mr Aylett said the main character, chemistry teacher Walter White, produced crystal meth and, after poisoning a rival, dissolved the body in acid.

Brizzi denies murder but has admitted obstructing a coroner by dismembering and disposing of the body.

The case will resume today.

Brizzi, above, denies murdering PC Gordon Semple, right, but has admitted disposing of his body after he died during a sex game gone wrong.