PC Gordon Semple 'dissolved in acid bath' on Grindr date

A sado-masochist obsessed with Breaking Bad strangled a police officer then copied a plot from the hit American drama by dissolving his body in an acid bath, a court heard.

PC Gordon Semple, 59, was on duty when he arranged to meet his alleged killer Stefano Brizzi on the gay dating app Grindr for "hot, dirty, sleazy" sex on 1 April this year.

The 50-year-old defendant was allegedly in the middle of throttling him when he turned away another man who had arrived for a sex and drugs party.

Days later neighbours on the Peabody Estate in Southwark, south London, noticed a "revolting smell" coming from Brizzi's flat.

When one complained, the Italian said he had been cooking for a friend and this was causing the smell, the Old Bailey heard.

A resident alerted police on 7 April and officers found Brizzi at his flat wearing only sunglasses and underpants.

They also discovered a bath full of acid with "globules of flesh" floating in it, the court heard.

Brizzi allegedly told an officer: "I've tried to dissolve the body ... I've killed a police officer. I killed him last week. I met him on Grindr and I killed him. Satan told me to."

However, jurors were told the defendant was not claiming a psychiatric defence and now says PC Semple died accidentally during a "sex game gone wrong".

Opening the trial, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors the case called for "broad minds and strong stomachs".

PC Semple had been in a relationship but was "sexually promiscuous" and used Grindr for "extreme" encounters of "domination, bondage and much else besides", he said.

On the day of the killing, PC Semple and Brizzi invited more men on Grindr to join them for a sex party with drugs available but only one man - referred to as CD - turned up, the court heard.

Mr Aylett told jurors: "When CD pressed the entry buzzer, someone who can only have been the defendant replied over the intercom, 'We are having a situation here. Someone fell ill but we're taking care of it. So our party is cancelled.' CD turned around and went home."

The prosecutor told jurors that CD must have arrived at the very point PC Semple was meeting his death inside the flat.

Brizzi later told police that PC Semple had invited a number of people to the flat "but they didn't arrive and, when one did arrive, I was right in the middle of strangling Gordon and I said to - he was right there at the door - and I said to him, 'Look, this is not the right time now, people are falling ill and it's a mess.'"

After PC Semple's partner failed to get hold of him on his mobile phone, he reported him missing.

The court heard that Brizzi had been a user of crystal meth - referred to as Nutella - which had cost him his job at financial giant Morgan Stanley.

It is alleged he told a support group that he believed in the Devil, and liked "satanic rituals" which involved having sex over the sign of the pentagram.

Brizzi was said to be "obsessed" with the American show Breaking Bad, jurors were told.

Mr Aylett said the main character, chemistry teacher Walter White, produced crystal meth and, after poisoning a rival, dissolved the body in acid.

Brizzi denies murder but has admitted obstructing a coroner by dismembering and disposing of the body.

The trial continues.