Stefano Brizzi: Cannibal meth addict who dissolved policeman in acid found dead in Belmarsh prison

A Breaking Bad fanatic who strangled a police officer to death before dissolving parts of his body in acid has been found dead, seven weeks after he was jailed.

Italian born Stefano Brizzi, 50, was convicted of murdering PC Gordon Semple at his south London flat last April while high on crystal meth after meeting him on gay dating app Grindr for sex.

Police believe he may have eaten part of PC Semple's body as he attempted to get rid of it, with bite marks found on a piece of bone and evidence showing he had cooked a dismembered leg.

A Prison Service spokesman said Brizzi was found dead at Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London on Sunday (5 February).

They declined to comment on whether Brizzi had taken his own life, adding: "As with all deaths in custody there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman."

Police said the death was currently being treated as "unexplained".

Brizzi was serving a life sentence, with a minimum of 24 years, after being convicted of murder on 12 December.

The former IT worker admitted to butchering PC Semple's body but denied murder, claiming the 59-year-old Met Police officer died accidentally during a "sex game gone wrong" when a dog leash he was wearing slipped.

The jury found him guilty, however, after hearing it would have taken far longer for him to be strangled than Brizzi's account suggested.

As the grisly details of the murder were read to the court during his trial, Brizzi regularly broke down in tears, crying out: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

The court heard how, after the murder, a drug-frenzied Brizzi dismembered and tried to dispose of his body in acid.

Police arrived at his flat on 7 April – a week after PC Semple's death – after complaints from a neighbour about the smell.

Jurors were told "globules" of flesh floating in a bath full of acid were later discovered in his flat, with one of PC Semple's feet discovered by a member of the public after it had been thrown into the River Thames.

His crimes were said to partly stem from his obsession with the popular US television show Breaking Bad, in which a character, Jesse (Aaron Paul), tries to dissolve a corpse in a bath of acid.

The jury also heard how the Italian was interested in Satanic rituals, and had told officers he'd heard Satan's voice saying: "You must kill."

Brizzi, who came from a strict Catholic family and moved to the UK from Tuscany in 2010, had started taking crystal meth after being introduced to the drug by those on the chemsex scene.

He said he left his job at banking giant Morgan Stanley in February 2015 after developing an addiction to the drug – which he referred to as Nutella.

The judge said there were "terrible features" of the case and that Brizzi's drug 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 had said.