The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Highland policeman’s DNA ‘found in blender and oven’
Court: Man accused of dismembering victim and cooking body parts
DNA from a Highland policeman was found on a blender, chopping board and chopsticks in the home of his alleged killer, a court heard yesterday.
Stefano Brizzi is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of throttling Constable Gordon Semple, originally from Inverness, who he had met on gay dating app Grindr, and then attempting to dispose of the body in a variety of ways, including in an acid bath.
DNA from the victim was found on the blender blade and also in a cooking pot and grease in the oven of the 50-year-old Italian’s kitchen, the Old Bailey heard.
Investigators also found there were bite marks on a piece of bone recovered from the kitchen bin at Brizzi’s home, the jury was told.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said: “So, the defendant cannot have confined himself to dismembering Gordon Semple and disposing of his body either by acid in the bath or else in the dustbins. Instead, the prosecution suggest it would be open to the jury to find that the defendant cooked part of his body and ate it.”
Constable Semple, 59, was on duty when he arranged to meet Brizzi, via Grindr for drug-fuelled sex on April 1.
Following the alleged murder, neighbours on the Peabody Estate in south
“As you can see, this was a very big man and all I have left is two buckets”
London noticed a “revolting smell” coming from Brizzi’s flat and police were alerted.
Asked what was still at the flat, Brizzi said there was a foot, hand and leg “which I tried to roast as well”, the court was told.
Constable Semple’s head was also at the flat but Brizzi flushed the lungs down the toilet, the court heard.
Some body parts were never recovered, the court was told.
While in the custody suite after his arrest, Brizzi allegedly said: “I thought I was getting away with it.
“As you can see, this man was a very big man and all I have left is two buckets.”
Jurors heard that Constable Semple and Brizzi engaged in sexual conduct that involved the victim having a leash put around his neck.
Mr Aylett said: “As the defendant did so, it is claimed that the leash slipped. It was then that the defendant realised that Mr Semple was no longer breathing.
“The defendant says that Mr Semple had no pulse, the defendant was unable to rouse him.”
He added: “Whether it was done as part of some satanic ritual, or whether it occurred in the course of sexual activity – as the defendant now says – or whether any drugs that the defendant had taken had made him paranoid, the prosecution allege that the defendant deliberately strangled Gordon Semple.
“Having murdered him, he went on to dismember his body before attempting to dispose of it in circumstances that amount to cannibalism.”
Brizzi denies murder but has admitted obstructing a coroner by dismembering and disposing of the body.