Artist’s sketch of Stefano Brizzi on trial at London’s Old Bailey court

A 50-year-old Italian national accused of murdering a UK policeman has said his attempt to dissolve the officer’s body in an acid bath was inspired by TV show Breaking Bad.
Stefano Brizzi, is accused of strangling veteran London metropolitan police officer Gordon Semple, 59, before dismembering him.
Brizzi, on trial at the London’s famous Old Bailey was accused by prosecutors of “living out an episode” of the US television drama, in which a body is “got rid of” by dissolving it in acid.
Mr Brizzi who denies murder but admits obstructing police investigations, said he “panicked” and felt “paranoid” after officer  Semple, from Greenhithe, Kent, died during a “sex game gone wrong” at his south London apartment.
The prosecution led by Crispin Aylett, pressed Brizzi, an admitted crystal meth user on his “obsession” with Breaking Bad.

Victim Gordon Semple, served with the Metropolitan Police for 30 years. No one can say exactly how he was killed

Aylett contended that Brizzi had been inspired by an episode of the show – about a chemistry teacher who makes a fortune manufacturing the drug – where the main character, Jesse Pinkman, attempts to dissolve a body in a bath.
“I accept I considered without any rationality at all. I think I was inspired by that idea,” Mr Brizzi replied.
“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.”

Breaking Bad: In season one, the main character Jesse Pinkman (right) and his sidekick  Walter White (left), use acid to hide a dead body.  Brizzi told the court  he had watched the TV drama two or three times

“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.”
Led in evidence, investigators told the court, officers found a “blue-green liquid” in the bath with “flesh-colored globules floating in the water”, when they searched Brizzi’s apartment.
Describing his actions after officer Semple died, Brizzi told the court he felt he was living in a “bad dream” and decided rather than call the police, he would cut up and dispose of the body.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett however attributed Brizzi’s actions to an attempt at a cover up. Hetold the court Brizzi dismembered the victim so no one could find out the exact cause of death of police officer Gordon Semple.
“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.
He said Mr Brizzi “did everything [he] possibly could to make sure nobody would be able to find out what happened to Gordon Semple”.
The defendant 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.