Sickening Breaking Bad Fan found guilty of Murdering London Officer
A Breaking Bad fan who strangled a police officer during a bondage sex session and tried to dispose of the body in an acid bath has been convicted of murder.
Italian banker Stefano Brizzi, 50, was found guilty of murdering the 59-year-old at his London flat after arranging to meet for a "sleazy session" on dating app Grindr.
Brizzi admitted he was inspired by his favourite TV series as he tried to get away with killing 59-year-old Pc Gordon Semple by dissolving his flesh.
The Breaking Bad fanatic - who often wore memorabilia T-shirts to Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings - set about a barbaric plot to dispose of the officer's body, inspired by the TV drama.
Following an Old Bailey trial, the former Morgan Stanley IT developer was found guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to two after the jury had deliberated for more than 30 hours.
According to Brizzi, Pc Semple died when a dog leash he had been wearing as part of a sex game slipped.
But a pathologist concluded that while strangulation was a possible cause of death, it would have taken minutes rather than moments, as the defendant had claimed.
In the days after the killing, crystal meth addict Brizzi was caught on CCTV buying buckets, a perforated metal sheet and cleaning products from a DIY store.
The former computer programmer dismembered PC Semple's body before dissolving much of it in an acid-filled bathtub, in a harrowing remake of a plot from the US show.
Police later found "globules" of flesh floating in the bath.
Brizzi flushed his victims lungs down the toilet and "flabbery" bits he had been unable to dissolve down the toilet.
Meanwhile, Pc Semple's long-term partner Gary Meeks raised the alarm and reported him missing when he failed to return to their home in Dartford, in Kent.
The court heard there was evidence in the kitchen that Brizzi had chopped up the Inverness-born officer with a variety of utensils and may have even used chopsticks to eat morsels of cooked meat.
The court heard that Brizzi was addicted to crystal meth, which had cost him his job at financial giant Morgan Stanley.
He had gone to Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings, but upset people by wearing a Breaking Bad T-shirt as the show "glorified" the drug.
He told the group he believed in the Devil and liked satanic rituals and he bragged of his bondage sex encounters.
In his home, police found a mask and dog leash with Pc Semple's DNA on it as well as a copy of the Satanic Bible.
Giving evidence, Brizzi, who has HIV, told jurors of the difficulties of being a gay man brought up in a religious Italian family.
The youngest of three siblings, his Tuscan father was a civil servant and his uncle was a Catholic priest.
But he was described as 'cool as a cucumber' when confronted by neighbours and then police over the smell of rotting flesh coming from his flat six days after the murder.
Future Hurricanes and Storms could reach Europe