A crystal meth user obsessed with the TV drama Breaking Bad strangled a Metropolitan police officer after inviting him to his flat for a sex session and then attempted to destroy the evidence by aping a method used in the show, a court has heard.

Stefano Brizzi, 50, is accused of the murder of PC Gordon Semple, whose body was found at the social worker’s flat in Southwark, London, on 7 April this year.

He admits disposing of the 59-year-old’s body but denies murder, claiming the officer died by accident during a drug-fuelled sex game that went wrong.

Opening the prosecution case at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Crispin Aylett QC told the jury that Brizzi was a heavy user of crystal meth who had lost a job at Morgan Stanley. He sought help from a support group for users run by Alex Roberts.

“Mr Roberts ... says that Stefano Brizzi had been obsessed with the American television show Breaking Bad. In the series a chemistry teacher named Walter White starts producing crystal meth,” said Aylett. “At first this is done to pay for medical care but he soon descends into the criminal underworld. After poisoning a rival, White ends up dissolving the body in acid.”

Aylett, who warned the jury that the evidence called for “strong stomachs”, said officers were called to Brizzi’s flat on 7 April after a neighbour 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.



“In dismembering Gordon Semple and disposing of some of the body parts, the defendant must have hoped, first, to avoid being caught and, if that failed, that it would be impossible to identify how Gordon Semple met his death,” said Aylett.

The jury heard that Brizzi told the police officers: “I’ve tried to dissolve the body ... I’ve killed a police officer.” Aylett said Brizzi continued: “I killed him last week. I met him on Grindr and I killed him. Satan told me to.”

Gordon Semple had served with the Metropolitan police for 30 years. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

The prosecutor said Brizzi was now saying that Semple’s death was an accident.

The jury heard explicit details of extreme sexual practices favoured by Semple and the defendant, including domination and bondage, revealed by their profiles and messages they sent to various men on Grindr. Both men also used illegal drugs.



Aylett said that Brizzi had upset other people in the crystal meth support group by talking about his sexual practices including satanic rituals, pain and sacrifice.

The prosecutor said that Semple, who had served with the Metropolitan police for 30 years, was in a relationship but regularly met strangers for sexual encounters. On 1 April, when he was supposed to be on duty, he made contact with Brizzi, whose Grindr profile was Dom SE1 – indicating a liking for dominant activity and his postcode – and said he was “free now for (a) hot dirty sleazy session”.

Semple arrived at the defendant’s flat and over the next few hours they used Grindr to invite other men to join them for a sex party where drugs would be available.

One man, identified in court only as CD, turned up shortly after 7pm. However, when he rang the entry buzzer he was told by a voice over the intercom, presumed to be that of Brizzi: “We are having a situation here. Someone fell ill but we’re taking care of it, so our party is cancelled.”

Brizzi later told police that when a man arrived at the flat “I was right in the middle of strangling Gordon”.

Semple last used Grindr shortly after 7pm. Twenty minutes later there was no answer when his partner tried to call him on his mobile. The partner reported him missing the next morning after he failed to return home and or answer more than 20 phone calls.

Over the next few days Brizzi’s neighbours became conscious of a nasty smell emanating from his flat. One of the neighbours knocked on his door to complain on 4 April and Brizzi apologised, saying it was caused by a meal he was cooking.

The next day the defendant was caught on CCTV at a hardware store buying items including pincers, heavy-duty scissors, a putty knife, plastic buckets, carpet cleaner and a perforated metal sheet. Aylett told the court the sheet was “wound up into a coil, maybe to be used as a grater”. He suggested this was used to extract pieces of flesh later found in Brizzi’s bath.

Brizzi sobbed loudly at times as he heard the case against him and proceedings were halted early after he appeared to be in some distress.

The case continues.