PC sex killing highlights dark world of hook-up apps

Gordon Semple served with the Metropolitan Police for 30 years

PC Gordon Semple appeared settled in life but he had a secret - a dangerous lifestyle of extreme sexual activity, arranged over the internet and fuelled by drugs.

The London PC's dismembered body was found in the flat of Stefano Brizzi - the IT worker who has been found guilty of his murder by an Old Bailey jury.

The men met using Grindr, the smartphone app millions of gay men use to look up others nearby and send them messages, often to arrange dates or "hook-ups".

Sometimes that can involve finding partners willing to take part in extreme sexual activities while taking drugs, sold or exchanged when users meet up.

"Chemsex", as it is known, is a growing part of gay culture, and the Brizzi trial laid bare its darkest secrets.

Sadomasochism

Few of PC Semple's colleagues in the Metropolitan Police even knew he was gay. He had been with his partner for 25 years but, as he had told one or two people, he had found something that was giving him an exciting secret sex life.

He did it surreptitiously - slipping away from a job in which his seniority allowed him the freedom to decide his own schedule.

CCTV footage from the day of his disappearance in April last year shows PC Semple walking through London glued to his mobile. The data from that phone shows what he was doing.

PC Semple and Brizzi had discussed, through Grindr messages, their plans. They involved bondage, sadomasochism, suffocation and drugs.

At his trial Brizzi, who claims to have had a strict Catholic upbringing at odds with his homosexuality and had no obvious signs of a violent past, pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming PC Semple had died in a "sex game gone wrong".

Brizzi came to London from Tuscany, Italy, in 2011 and became an IT analyst at Morgan Stanley in the City - a job he lost after he began taking crystal meth, or methamphetamine.

He referred to the drug as Nutella in his online posts but it is more commonly known as "Tina". Other substances popular on the chemsex scene include M, or mephedrone, and G - GHB.

'Perfect storm'

Experts refer to them as "party drugs", and describe how for some gay men they have replaced ecstasy and cocaine.

Stefano Brizzi had no history of violence

Monty Moncrieff, who runs the Antidote support group which is part of the London Friend counselling service, says the new drugs are more potent, and their availability has been enhanced through apps.

"The coming together of the drugs and the apps, it's like a perfect storm," he said.

Crystal meth use has grown among gay men, he says, because it "lends itself to sex", reducing inhibitions and allowing them to stay awake for longer.

But it is more intense than cocaine, and can be injected, raising the health risk. The comedown from the drug "can be intense", he says, and may result in hallucinations and psychosis.

This might explain, though not excuse, the horrific way in which Brizzi attempted to dispose of PC Semple's body.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told the jury that Brizzi, who had admitted a charge of obstructing a coroner in the execution of their duty, had dismembered PC Semple so no-one could find out exactly how the police officer had died.

Brizzi's trial heard he referred to crystal meth as Nutella in his online posts

Inspired by an episode of US TV show Breaking Bad, he cut up the officer's body and tried to dissolve it in an acid bath.

Crystal meth has become infamous in the UK from its portrayal in the same TV show in which a mild-mannered New Mexico suburbanite, Walter White, becomes a major dealer.

Brizzi was a huge fan of the show. It appears on a screen behind him in a selfie he posted on Facebook, along with a discussion of his intention to keep taking crystal meth.

'Heady mix'

Britain does not have a major problem with methamphetamine, apart from in the gay scene.

While Antidote's Monty Moncrieff says he has heard of drug-related deaths, what he is particularly concerned about is the impact on users' mental health.

PC Semple's dismembered body was found at Brizzi's flat

Experts believe this has created something of a vicious cycle since psychological problems may be driving gay men towards the apps, the sex and the drugs in the first place.

Journalist Matt Todd argues in his book, Straight Jacket - How To Be Gay and Happy, that the legacy of a difficult upbringing, at odds with one's sexuality, can often be to blame.

"You are looking for ways to feel better about yourself. Taking drugs, having sex with people, being validated, it's a very heady mix.

"When these new drugs are mixed with apps which make it very, very easy to meet new partners it can be a very dangerous, compelling, compulsive, explosive situation.

"Drugs are passed around and sometimes people wake up and they don't know what's happened to them, or they may have been sexually assaulted, or they may have been raped."