Italian national Stefano Brizzi, 50, is accused of strangling PC Gordon Semple, 59, before dismembering him. Mr Brizzi has admitted to using crystal meth. Prosecutors at the Old Bailey accused him of “living out an episode” of the US drama ‘Breaking Bad’, in which a body is “got rid of” by dissolving it in acid. The accused said he had been inspired by the TV show. Mr Brizzi denies murder but admits obstructing a coroner. Mr Brizzi said he “panicked” and felt “paranoid” after PC Semple, from Greenhithe, Kent, died during a “sex game gone wrong” at his south London flat.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC asked Mr Brizzi during cross-examination about his “obsession” with Breaking Bad. He suggested Mr Brizzi had been inspired by an episode of the show where a character attempts to dissolve a body in a bath. Mr Brizzi said he had watched the US TV series two or three times
Mr Brizzi said, “I accept I considered without any rationality at all. I think I was inspired by that idea. I took whatever was there, thinking maybe I can dissolve him. The bath was absolutely tiny, I had no knives, no saws, anything in particular out of the ordinary. I had no idea what kind of chemical I was using. I’m not saying I was not inspired by that idea. What other ways did I have to dispose of it? I couldn’t bury it. I didn’t know where to start.”
The court previously heard that officers searching Mr Brizzi’s, flat found a “blue-green liquid” in the bath with “flesh-coloured globules floating in the water”.
Mr Brizzi said after PC Semple died, he felt he was living in a “bad dream” and decided that, rather than call the police, he would cut up and dispose of the body.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said Mr Brizzi dismembered the body so no-one could find out exactly how the police officer had died, “the condition you left the body in means the pathologist cannot tell one way or another. You could have hit him with a hammer, rendering him unconscious.” He said Mr Brizzi “did everything [he] possibly could to make sure nobody would be able to find out what happened to Gordon Semple”. Mr Brizzi replied, “I tried to get away with it. I did not act out a strategy of some kind of well- thought ideas.”
The trial continues.
Be the first to comment