Man who strangled policeman during Grindr hook-up before dissolving body jailed for life
By Will Stroude
A man who strangled a Met Police officer before trying to dissolve his body in an acid-filled bath has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murder.
50-year-old Stefano Brizzi, from south London, admitted strangling PC Gordon Semple to death before chopping up his body while high on crystal meth, the BBC reports.
Brizzi initially denied murder, claiming that a dog leash slipped during a sex game gone wrong, accidentally killing Semple on April 1. However, it was said in court that it would have taken longer for PC Semple to be killed by strangling than Brizzi’s version of events suggested.
Police found PC’s Semple’s body six days after he died, after neighbours reported a putrid smell from Brizzi’s flat. They found PC Semple’s partially-dissolved remains in a bath.
Claims were made during the trial that Brizzi attempted to cannibalise parts of PC Semple after investigators found the victim’s DNA on a blender blade, a cooking pot, chopsticks, a copping board, and in the oven, as well as bite marks on a piece of bone.
Handing down the sentence, the judge said there were “terrible features” to the case, adding that Brizzi’s addiction had ruined his life.
“Regret you express now for Mr Semple’s death has to be seen against what you did over a number of days to his body,” he said.
Brizzi was ordered to serve a minimum of 24 years in jail.
Meanwhile, the National Police Chiefs’ Council recently demanded that dating apps such as Grindr take “more responsibility” for protecting users’ safety. The plea came after 41-year-old Stephen Port was jailed for life last month after murdering four young men he met through online dating apps with lethal doses of the drug GHB.
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