Crystal meth addict butchered policeman he met on Grindr before dissolving body in acid bath

A man who strangled a police officer he met on a gay-dating website before attempting to dissolve his body in a bathtub of acid has been found guilty of murder. Stefano Brizzi, 50, has been convicted of killing 59-year-old PC Gordon Semple at his flat in Bermondsey, south London last April.

During the trail at the Old Bailey, Brizzi denied murdering the officer while high on crystal meth after meeting him on Grindr, claiming he died accidentally after he failed to use a safe word during a "dangerous" sex game.

After killing Semple, Brizzo chopped up the body and dumped parts of his remains in communal bins. His body was eventually discovered after a resident reported a "smell of death" coming from a property on the Peabody Estate in Southwark Street.

During the trial, the jury was told officers went into the property and discovered "globules" of flesh in a bath full of acid, parts of a human spine and hand in a bin liner, and a pool of PC Semple's blood in Brizzi's oven.

Police believe it is also possible Brizzo may have eaten part of the body as bite marks were found on a piece of bone recovered from his kitchen bin. The victims's DNA was found on the blade of a blender, cooking pot and a chopstick inside the flat.

The killing was reminiscent of a scene in the popular TV show Breaking Bad in which a character played by Bryan Cranston attempts to get rid of a body by dissolving it in a bath tub. Brizzi admitted he had watched the show to help him quit his own crystal meth habit. "You substitute your dangerous addiction with a much more tolerable one which is what I was trying to do."

Brizzi, who moved to the UK in 2010 from Tuscany, has now been found guilty of murder after the jury deliberated for five days.

The killing was reminiscent of a scene in the popular TV show Breaking Bad in which a character played by Bryan Cranston attempts to get rid of a body by dissolving it in a bath tub. Brizzi admitted he had watched the show to help him quit his own crystal meth habit. "You substitute your dangerous addiction with a much more tolerable one which is what I was trying to do."

Brizzi will now be sentenced on 9 December.

Following the guilty verdict, Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Ayling, said: "Fuelled by drugs, Stefano Brizzi murdered Gordon and then set about systemically disposing of his body, the detail of which is quite frankly distressing to read and hear.

"The investigation has evidenced the sickening lengths that he went to dismember Gordon and dispose of his remains, not just in the immediate aftermath of the murder but over the days that followed, and amounts to cannibalism.

"Brizzi clearly and coldly laid a false trail by contacting Gordon on Grindr five days after he himself had murdered him and weaving a fictious account of what took place that afternoon.

"Brizzi was unaware that Gordon was a police officer and the investigation has proved that the two men had never met before. Only Brizzi will know the reasons why that day he became a killer."