Guest turned away ‘just as sex session PC met his death’
A MAN accused of murdering a Scottish policeman during a drug-fuelled sex session turned a guest away ‘at the very moment’ the officer was being strangled, a court heard yesterday.
Stefano Brizzi, 50, allegedly murdered PC Gordon Semple, 59, and dismembered his body after organising a rendezvous on the Grindr website.
PC Semple, originally from Inverness, was on duty when he arranged to meet for ‘hot, dirty, sleazy’ sex through the gay dating app.
The Old Bailey heard the two met at Brizzi’s flat in Southwark, south London, on April 1, where Brizzi is alleged to have strangled PC Semple, 59, after an extreme sex session involving bondage.
The court was told another Grindr user came to join them as Brizzi was strangling PC Semple but Brizzi sent him away, claiming he ‘had a situation’ and someone was feeling unwell after taking drugs known as ‘chems’.
The Italian, a former web developer for finance firm Morgan Stanley, was so calm, the witness said, he thought someone was just being sick on his carpet.
PC Semple’s body was discovered seven days later, when police were alerted to a ‘smell of death’.
Some of his remains were found dissolving in a bath of acid. Other body parts were found in Brizzi’s bin and in the communal bins while a severed foot was found by a member of the public and attempts were made to boil the officer’s flesh away in pans, the court heard,.
Earlier, the men had been trying to persuade others to join them for a ‘chemsex’ party, jurors were told.
Only one man agreed, but was sent away by Brizzi who told him via the intercom: ‘We’re having a situation here. Someone fell ill but we’re taking care of it. So our party is cancelled.’
The witness, known only as CD to protect his identity, had met Brizzi on a fetish website but they had never seen each other in person.
Describing the exchange, CD said: ‘He sounded concerned and a little bit upset, but okay. He didn’t sound worried. To be honest, what I imagined was that someone was throwing up on his carpet. That was the impression he gave me.’
Brizzi was reportedly obsessed with the US TV series Breaking Bad, which once featured a victim being dissolved in a bath of acid.
He initially admitted the killing, saying ‘I promised the Devil I would kill at the first chance’, but now claims PC Semple died during a sex game involving strangling.
PC Semple, from Greenhithe, Dartford, was reported missing by his partner Gary Meeks. Yesterday, PC Charlotte Edwards told the court she and PC Helen Savage were sent to investigate a smell six days later.
The defendant answered the door wearing pink Y-fronts and steered them towards the bathroom, where the bath was full of ‘flesh globules’ floating in murky turquoise water.
Brizzi allegedly told her: ‘I’ve tried to dissolve the body. I’ve killed a police officer. Satan told me to.’
Brizzi denies murder. He admits obstructing the coroner by dismembering PC Semple’s body in order to dispose of it.
The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.