Fatal Swipe: The Grindr Trap | Hashtag Homicide | Forensic Files

[audio logo] [tense music] ♪ ♪ Colin Adwent: The online world is a force for good,
but it also can be used for very bad things. Honor Doro Townshend: Dating apps can offer this opportunity to meet new people
and explore sexuality. They can also pose some significant risks. These dating apps, these hookup apps
can actually provide a source of victims for manipulators and abusers. And unfortunately, in this case, this was a killer.
Suruthi Bala: Gordon was using dating apps to explore sexual desires, sexual activities
with other people. And it was a chance encounter, somebody offering what he wanted.
And Gordon Semple was last seen on CCTV at about 3:00 PM on Great Guildford Street.
- It was out of character for him, as well, not to have arrived home at the normal time.
So at that point, his partner became concerned and started to raise the alarm, being fearful that something
had happened to Gordon. [siren blares] ♪ ♪ The murder created national headlines.
It was such an awful way of killing somebody. - Due to the condition of those human remains,
it will take some time for the cause of death to be established and for formal identification
to take place. Honor Doro Townshend: It's one of the most extreme and heinous destructions of a human body
that I've ever come across. [siren] [theme music] ♪ ♪ [tense music] ♪ ♪ host:<i> Exactly a week ago,</i> <i> 59-year-old police constable</i>
<i> Gordon Semple left for work.</i> <i> He never came home.</i> <i> Inquiries showed</i> <i> he'd attended a work</i>
<i> meeting near The Shard</i> <i> skyscraper close</i> <i> to London Bridge.</i>
<i> And this CCTV image was</i> <i> the last sighting of him</i> <i> at 3:00 in the afternoon.</i>
[suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ The forensic work is continuing at the scene. And the police say there is more yet to do.
Very little has been revealed about the exact circumstances in which the body was found, nor has a cause
of death been revealed. [suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ Colin Adwent: Gordon Semple was 59.
He was a police officer. And he'd worked in London primarily on anti-social behavior teams.
He was originally from Inverness, but had come down here and had been working down here
for the Metropolitan Police. Suruthi Bala: He'd moved to London when he was around 19 years old.
And he was a senior police officer there, working in an incredibly challenging unit.
And he had dedicated decades of his life to the London men. [siren blares] Colin Adwent: He'd been a police
officer for nearly 30 years and was close to retirement. He was described by his family as a sort of<i> Dixon</i>
<i> of Dock Green</i> type character. And what they meant by that is an old style British police
officer-- kind, caring. He was active in his community. He raised money for charity, ran marathons, and,
to all intents and purposes, led a respectable life and was just a nice, kind, gentle person.
narrator:<i> Gordon</i> <i> Semple was active</i> <i> on social media platforms</i> <i> such as Facebook,</i>
<i> where he would interact</i> <i> with friends and family.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: He was described by his family
and friends as very well loved and very engaged with his family, Suruthi Bala: And he was a man who seemingly was
leading a sort of double life. On the surface, he was a highly, highly respected police officer,
a very senior police officer. And also at home, he had a very stable relationship,
a very loving relationship with a man named Gary. The two of them had been together for around 25 years.
Colin Adwent: They'd been in a long-term relationship, but it was an open relationship.
Dario van der Kraken: Being in an open relationship means that you-- while still you
are attached to your primary partners, you can have other sexual encounters with other people.
So potentially, you can also date other people. It depends on the rules that the couple
actually set themselves. Colin Adwent: Gordon is free to go off and have sex with other men.
- Which obviously might be hard for some people to understand. But by all accounts, the pair of them were very happy.
narrator:<i> Gordon met</i> <i> other men through</i> <i> online dating</i> <i> platforms, using them</i>
<i> to message potential</i> <i> partners and arrange hookups.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: Online dating
is obviously a huge industry. And a significant portion of people nowadays meet their partners online.
Because of the popularity of online dating, there are apps that are targeted at basically anything
and everything, from the seriousness of relationship that you're looking for or particular interests,
particular sexual interests. And it's a massive industry. And so many people now engage in multiple platforms.
Dario van der Kraken: Each has their own niche. Grindr, obviously, is the most used ones
because it was the first one to come into the market 10-ish years ago. Grindr is mostly for hookups.
Most powerful tool that Grindr has is immediacy. Grindr was really designed for speed.
However, there are people that use Grindr to look for long-term relationships. So every app normally has all of these type of users looking
for casual encounters or serious, long-term relationship as well, because it's just about how
you put yourself out there, what you put in your profile as well. So you can actually filter out people that are not looking
for what you are looking for. Honor Doro Townshend: Online dating means that you can meet people that you'd have never
met before in normal life. You can meet people from different areas, from different cultures, from different countries.
And it means that you can create these organic connections with people that you may never have met before.
There is, however, of course, a potential risk, a potential downside to online dating.
And that's because, ultimately, people can present themselves as whatever they wish.
Now, there are various tools that dating apps will try and put in place to help reduce this,
things like getting a verified profile, so you can prove that you are the person in the pictures,
for instance. narrator:<i> Dating</i> <i> apps have grown</i> <i> in popularity across the UK.</i>
<i> And between 2011</i> <i> and 2016, police</i> <i> recorded over 2,000 crimes</i> <i> linked to online dating.</i>
Dario van der Kraken: All dating apps, they have safety measures. All of them, they have reporting tools,
blocking tools. So there is a lot that people can potentially report on the app.
Honor Doro Townshend: However, there are still risks involved. It could be that someone's presenting themselves
as having a different job to what they really do or having a totally different personality to how they're
coming across to you online. You have to remember, when you're talking to someone online, people have time
to think about their response. They have time to craft exactly what they're going to say
and how they want you to feel in response to that. And that just means that people have a lot of control over how
they're coming across. It means that people can manipulate this. And they can present very false versions of who they are,
which can create really dangerous situations when you're meeting up with people online.
narrator:<i> Gordon Semple was</i> <i> unaware of the danger that</i> <i> awaited him on April</i> <i> 1, 2016, which at first</i>
<i> seemed like any other day.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: Gordon Semple wakes up in his home
that he shares with Gary, and he heads into Westminster. He's going for a meeting at the Shangri-La restaurant, which
is in The Shard building. And he finishes that at around 12:30 in the afternoon.
narrator:<i> After Gordon</i> <i> leaves the meeting,</i> <i> he arranges to meet</i> <i> a man he has been</i>
<i> messaging on the Grindr app.</i> Dario van der Kraken: Grindr specifically is an app
based on geolocalization. So when you log in, you see all the profiles that are connected that are nearby
sorted in order of distance, so you can see which one are closest to you. Suruthi Bala: Gordon and Gary, they
were in a loving, committed relationship, but they had the freedom to also explore sexual desires,
sexual activities with other people outside of that relationship. In this particular case, with what happened on April the 1st,
2016, however, it does seem that Gary didn't know about Gordon's plans to meet up for that instant hookup.
And I think it probably speaks to the impulsivity of that meeting. And it was a chance encounter, somebody
offering what he wanted. Honor Doro Townshend: <i> Gordon Semple is</i> <i> seen on CCTV at around</i> <i> half past 12:00</i>
<i> as he's leaving The Shard.</i> <i> And then there's more CCTV, and</i> <i> he's on Great Guildford Street</i>
<i> in Southwark.</i> <i> And that is the last CCTV</i> <i> footage of Gordon Semple.</i>
<i> Gordon had been talking to</i> <i> someone online about meeting up</i> <i> for a casual sexual encounter.</i>
<i> And when he's</i> <i> seen in Southwark,</i> <i> he's on the way to that</i> <i> person's flat to meet up.</i>
<i> He doesn't know his real name.</i> <i> He doesn't really know anything</i> <i> about this person's real life.</i>
- There are risks with using these kind of social media apps. When you are meeting up with a stranger
who you have no idea who they are, you're going to their house. Honor Doro Townshend: So he's kind of walking
into an unknown situation. When Gordon Semple arrived, apparently, the person that he's been communicating with
is using online dating apps to try and find more people to join in this chemsex party.
Chemsex is essentially any sexual activity where substances are used with specifically
the intention of enhancing the sexual experience. Essentially, all drugs can be utilized
for the purpose of chemsex, but there are those which are more commonly utilized.
And they tend to be either stimulants or depressants, depending on the intention behind their use.
Commonly used substances include things like cocaine, GHB, and crystal meth. Colin Adwent: The man had arranged for two other people
to come to this chemsex party, as it was described. And before anybody else got there, at some point,
he and Gordon were having sex. narrator:<i> At 7:00</i> <i> PM that day, another</i>
<i> man who was invited to the</i> <i> party arrives at the flat.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: Another participant
who'd been invited along to engage in this chemsex party did arrive at the flat.
They got a bit lost and disorientated in the estate. But when they finally got up to the door, they were knocking.
And at first, no one came forward. And then they heard a voice saying that someone's fallen ill, and the chemsex
party is off and just go away. Now, the person who came to the door said that he sounded a bit stressed, but maybe
not particularly panicked. And he also said that he thought he might hear someone
in the background maybe being sick, but there was definitely something going on.
But he didn't think of it being anything more serious than maybe someone had taken a bit too
much of something and was feeling under the weather, so he left and went home. narrator:<i> Meanwhile,</i> <i> Gordon's partner, Gary, has</i>
<i> been trying to contact him.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: Gary knew that Gordon was supposed to be
on his way home that evening. And he tried to call him a bunch of times. And he's not getting through.
Colin Adwent: So it was out of character for Gordon not to communicate with his partner particularly after work
or telling him where he would be. So at that point, his partner became concerned
and started to raise the alarm and being fearful that something had happened to Gordon.
And it was that evening that Gary, Gordon's partner, reported him missing to the police.
narrator:<i> As the evening</i> <i> progresses</i> <i> with no sign of Gordon, his</i> <i> loved ones become increasingly</i>
<i> worried for his welfare.</i> <i> Police begin searching for him.</i> <i> Little do they</i> <i> know, this search</i>
<i> would lead to one</i> <i> of the most disturbing</i> <i> discoveries imaginable.</i>
[audio logo] [audio logo] narrator:<i> On April</i> <i> 1, 2016, 59-year-old</i>
<i> police officer Gordon</i> <i> Semple is reported missing.</i> <i> He is last seen on CCTV around</i> <i> 12:30 PM near the South Bank</i>
<i> of the River Thames in London.</i> <i> When he does not return</i> <i> home that evening,</i>
<i> his partner, Gary,</i> <i> becomes concerned and</i> <i> contacts the police.</i>
Suruthi Bala: Almost immediately, as soon as Gordon Semple is reported missing, the police do start treating him
as a very high-risk missing person, which I have to say isn't usually the case, especially
when an adult, particularly an adult man, goes missing. People are within their rights to choose
to disappear if they want to. But it was very, very obvious that this was incredibly out
of character for Gordon Semple, for him to not turn up to work, so immediately treated as high profile.
And his family are incredibly concerned. Colin Adwent: Gordon was also a police officer.
That would have raised concerns within the Metropolitan Police as well as to his whereabouts and
what may have happened to him. - There was a significant concern. Because of that concern, there are also Facebook groups
that start to be made in the search for Gordon, trying to raise awareness and find out any information,
who's seen him, where he's last been, all of that kind of stuff. And it is through these Facebook groups
that the profile starts to build and more people become aware of this ongoing missing
person's case. [tense music] ♪ ♪ Colin Adwent: One of the things that Facebook does and posts on Facebook is a two-fold thing, really.
It's about trying to find or the person that is missing, but also what it does is it does put an element of pressure on the authorities
to ensure that they respond to the concerns of people and worries. Suruthi Bala: And I think that's why
this incredibly out-of-character behavior is what elevated the case so quickly to being so high profile.
narrator:<i> As the days</i> <i> pass, investigators and</i> <i> Gordon's loved ones</i> <i> begin to fear the worst.</i>
<i> The case is passed on to the</i> <i> homicide investigation team.</i> Honor Doro Townshend: On April 6, 2016,
Gordon Semple is officially listed as a high-risk missing person. And it's at this point that the Homicide and
Major Crime Command unit of the police take over the case. The community and Gordon's family
must have been extremely worried and concerned at this point. It's been multiple days with no contact.
It's very out of character for Gordon to disappear like this. And now, even just the knowledge
that Major Crime and Homicides at the Metropolitan Police are now taking over the case has
got to fill them with such fear and just panic over what's happened to their loved one.
And this is a case that really started to have its impact in the community, because you've got to remember as well,
Gordon himself is a police officer. And so the fact that there's this sort of danger,
this risk that even a police officer has sort of been subject to is something that people
find really shocking. And it really impacts on everyone's feeling of safety. Nick Stocking: 30 years ago, I applied to be
a Metropolitan Police officer. I did a few years in the CID in West End Central.
And from West End Central, I then joined a murder investigation team where I did 22 years until I retired.
All high-risk missing persons come to murder investigation teams. If we've got more contacts, we can
do a bit more advanced work. Gordon was the missing person. We looked into it. This CCTV officer, he went out, and he looked at various areas.
And he was able to find Gordon on CCTV, so we knew last sightings was that area.
narrator:<i> Police obtained</i> <i> the CCTV evidence on April 6,</i> <i> five days after</i> <i> Semple's disappearance.</i>
<i> Using cell phone</i> <i> triangulation, they tracked</i> <i> his mobile device nearby.</i>
<i> Meanwhile, suspicion begins</i> <i> to grow around the flat</i> <i> of 49-year-old Stefano Brizzi</i> <i> in the Peabody Estate when</i>
<i> investigators received reports</i> <i> from his neighbors that</i> <i> a disturbing smell has been</i> <i> coming from his apartment</i>
<i> over the last few days.</i> Suruthi Bala: It was about a week after Gordon went missing that residents in the estate
started to notice quite a horrific smell coming from one of the flats. And it was actually the caretaker who
initially took note of this. And he actually is so disturbed by this smell that he alerts another resident to this.
That man was called Martin Harris. And he happened to be the neighbor that lived
directly above Stefano Brizzi. The two men go to the door, and they agree. Yes, there is something.
There is some awful smell coming from within the flat. And the caretaker actually jumps
straight to the conclusion that he thinks it is the smell of a dead body. And Martin Harris actually says that he
was so freaked out by this that he went back to his own flat to have a cigarette out on his balcony.
And when he was there, he's smoking a cigarette. He looks down over his balcony.
And he sees the resident who's underneath him on his own balcony. And so he asks him, mate, this is a very strange
smell coming from your room. What's going on? Colin Adwent: Brizzi made an excuse,
saying that he was cooking for a friend, which was quite a macabre thing to say.
Suruthi Bala: The following day, when the smell didn't dissipate, Martin Harris came back to confront him.
Honor Doro Townshend: He notices that there's scented candles placed outside that
have nearly fully burned down. Stefano Brizzi comes to the door. And he's wearing aviators and some pink Speedos.
And he says that he's been cooking for his friends, and that's what the smell is.
And that's why he set the candles out outside. But the neighbor's not convinced.
- The neighbor obviously had some sort of instinct or gut feeling that something had gone on there
and was very, very concerned. narrator:<i> Upon reporting</i> <i> Stefano Brizzi to the police,</i>
<i> a unit is sent out</i> <i> to the Peabody Estate.</i> [siren] Suruthi Bala: At around 1:00 PM, the police
arrived at the estate. Now, these police officers weren't homicide detectives. They were actually just ordinary beat cops.
And I don't think they could have been in any way prepared for what was going to happen when
they arrived at this flat. Immediately as soon as they knocked on the door, Stefano Brizzi opened the door dressed in pink Speedos and
Aviator sunglasses. Immediately very strange, and then he opens his mouth. Colin Adwent: Brizzi told the police officer that Satan
had told him to do it. And he decided the only way to get rid of the body was to dismember it and try and dissolve it so
that there was no trace left. Honor Doro Townshend: When the police entered Brizzi's apartment, they
were immediately confronted with the smell and just the mess everywhere. Suruthi Bala: The scene inside can only
be described as absolutely horrific and very obvious that this man, Stefano Brizzi, had
been trying very desperately to dispose of a body. Honor Doro Townshend: There are bones
and fragments of flesh and body everywhere over this apartment. And it has to be one of the most extreme and
horrific destructions of a human body that the police will ever have encountered.
[audio logo] [audio logo] [tense music] narrator:<i> On April 7, 2016, six</i> <i> days after 59-year-old Gordon</i>
<i> Semple's disappearance, A 999</i> <i> call comes from the Peabody</i> <i> Estate in Southwark.</i>
<i> Neighbors report a stench of</i> <i> death emanating from the flat</i> <i> of 49-year-old Stefano Brizzi.</i>
<i> When officers arrive,</i> <i> Brizzi casually tells them</i> <i> that he has killed someone.</i>
- When the police first arrive and they speak to him, his initial conversation with them is very much a confession.
He tells the police officers that, I killed a man last week. I spoke to Satan. And he kept telling me, kill, kill, kill.
And I told him, I would at the next opportunity. So they arrest Stefano Brizzi and take him
to Lewisham Police Station. narrator:<i> Stefano Brizzi</i> <i> is taken into custody.</i>
<i> And police cordoned</i> <i> off the flat,</i> <i> which is now a crime scene.</i>
<i> A full homicide</i> <i> investigation team</i> <i> is dispatched to the location.</i>
Nick Stocking: His apartment was on the first floor. We would have gone up some stairs to get to it.
And then you walk along a narrow walkway to his door. We would have gone through his door.
And there was a strong smell of chemicals. We had to have a special unit to come out first
to make safe that it was OK to go in. So myself and my colleague, there was two of us
on this occasion. We went in to the premises after getting ourselves suited. And then we started looking around to see what we have
in sight to start off with. And then we start finding stuff, which is, we believe,
is going to be relevant for the investigation. Suruthi Bala: Inside the flat, there is all sorts
of macabre things going on. There's bin bags full of bones. There's parts of skull that they find.
In the bathroom, the bathtub is filled with some blue, green, caustic material and fat globules
that are just floating in it. It would later transpire that Stefano Brizzi had been trying to dissolve body parts in the bathtub.
narrator:<i> As investigators</i> <i> comb through the apartment,</i> <i> police obtained</i> <i> nearby CCTV footage</i>
<i> that shows Stefano Brizzi</i> <i> purchasing supplies</i> <i> to dispose of the body.</i>
Colin Adwent: Brizzi went to a local DIY store to purchase various things that he
could use to dismember and dissolve, such as chemicals, tools, buckets. Suruthi Bala: There's even a disturbing clip of him.
You can see on the CCTV footage of him putting one of the buckets on his head, which does rather morbidly
feel like he was checking to see if it could fit a human head in it. Honor Doro Townshend: This is simply
one of the worst attacks on the physical form that is physically possible. Suruthi Bala: It only became more disturbing when
they inspected the kitchen. They found DNA on various kitchen utensils that were there.
Honor Doro Townshend: There are traces found in the blender, in the oven. There are parts of bones everywhere.
Suruthi Bala: They found evidence of leg that seemed to show signs of having been burned.
But possibly worst of all, they found remains of bones that appeared to have bite marks on them.
And it did lead to speculation that in his desperation to dispose of this body, that Stefano Brizzi
may have actually ended up consuming parts of the body. narrator:<i> The homicide</i> <i> unit prepares</i>
<i> to catalog all available</i> <i> evidence from the flat.</i> <i> It is assumed that the remains</i> <i> belong to Gordon Semple,</i>
<i> though a DNA test is</i> <i> needed to confirm it.</i> Nick Stocking: And it took nearly two weeks for us
to do the whole crime scene. We found a mobile phone that belongs to the suspect.
We will bag it up. That would go to the phones officer because we would class that as being relevant evidence.
They can work on that. They obviously intercepted his phone and data and everything else.
narrator:<i> A digital</i> <i> forensics investigator</i> <i> accesses Grindr</i> <i> and the messages</i>
<i> exchanged between Stefano</i> <i> Brizzi and Gordon Semple.</i> <i> These become key</i> <i> pieces of evidence.</i>
Suruthi Bala: The police did find a copy of The Satanic Bible in Stefano Brizzi's flat.
In the corners of the book, he also made little notes about himself. It is interesting that Stefano Brizzi was, at the very least,
identifying with something in there. - There was other items in there like the saucepans,
the frying pans. It was quite clear that there was fat all over it, bodily fluids and stuff like that.
So again, we thought that was relevant. So we had to basically think outside the box for a box
to put some of this stuff in because it wouldn't have fitted into our normal boxes for exhibits.
He tried to dismember the body to get rid of the body. As we know, he tried at first to put it into a bath
and pour different types of bleaches to try and dissolve the body. It didn't work.
So the next stage, we believe, is that he either tried cooking it, hence the fat being
everywhere, all over the windows, over the floor. It was very slippery. Honor Doro Townshend: It's one of the most extreme and
heinous destructions of a human body that I've ever come across. Nick Stocking: Also, some of it was flushed down the toilets,
so we had to call what we classed as a pulser team to come in to look at the drain, drain works.
And we found body flesh down the drain works as well. narrator:<i> Investigators uncover</i> <i> additional evidence suggesting</i>
<i> possible cannibalism intent.</i> <i> Brizzi had attempted</i> <i> to dismember</i>
<i> body parts using a grater.</i> Nick Stocking: We noticed that there was some items where
he couldn't grate the body. So rather than a small cheese grater, which we found inside,
he adapted. And he went to a local store and bought items, bits of grill and stuff,
so he could bring back and, again, use that for grating. Terrible way to go. But again, what I thought was body parts,
we seized that, boxed it up. That went off to the lab to be confirmed whether it
was human flesh or not. And it came back it was. narrator:<i> It soon</i> <i> emerges that Brizzi</i>
<i> took steps to dispose of body</i> <i> parts outside the flat.</i> <i> Police receive</i> <i> a disturbing 999 call.</i>
Nick Stocking: A mudlarker was on the Thames looking for coins and bottles and everything
and came across some body parts, contacted the police. Because it wasn't too far away from where the scene was,
we attended there. And those parts of the body, it turns out it was part of our investigation.
Colin Adwent: A terrible scene of a quite traumatic scene, I would imagine, of devastation in terms of body parts.
Part of the leg or foot was actually disposed of in the river nearby. - Due to the condition of those human remains,
it will take some time for formal identification to take place. narrator:<i> Police</i> <i> must first confirm</i>
<i> that the remains</i> <i> belonged to Gordon Semple</i> <i> before informing his</i> <i> partner and family,</i>
<i> who anxiously await the news.</i> Colin Adwent: Because of the state of this body, really,
in identifying who it may be, the only way they managed to identify him was in tracing his movements back through CCTV
and his online footprint. Suruthi Bala: The Grindr chat logs were able to really flesh out this story of how these two
men met and the journey they went on, the timeline, and how this ended where it did.
Nick Stocking: Some of us give our DNA when we first joined the police. The reason we do that, and the reason I've done it,
was if you ever go into a crime scene, and you happen to cough, and you do leave your evidence, if you're-- all uniformed
officers who are first on scene, they're not suited and booted, so they could go in there.
They could touch something. So my advice is obviously give your DNA because it just eliminates a lot quicker.
There is a police officer's database where they can eliminate or find things. Gordon was part of that database.
The laboratory deal with that side of it. So you would send up, and it takes a few days to establish a DNA and compare
it against another DNA. So within about 24 hours, we would have known that all the body parts
coming out of the flat and the Thames were what was left of Gordon. Alison Newcomb: This is a very sad
day for Gordon's colleagues. There are many officers who have served with Gordon in London during his 30-year career.
My thoughts are with Gordon's family and friends at this personal time of tragedy.
narrator:<i> The murder of Gordon</i> <i> Semple shocks police, family,</i> <i> and the wider community.</i>
<i> With Stefano Brizzi</i> <i> in custody, the question</i> <i> remains, what could drive a man</i> <i> to commit such a heinous act?</i>
<i> And will he ever</i> <i> reveal why he did it?</i> [audio logo] [audio logo]
[somber music] narrator:<i> Police have taken</i> <i> Stefano Brizzi into custody</i>
<i> for the murder</i> <i> and dismemberment</i> <i> of 59-year-old</i> <i> Gordon Semple, whom</i>
<i> he met through a dating app.</i> <i> With their suspect</i> <i> in custody, police now</i>
<i> face the urgent task</i> <i> of learning everything</i> <i> they can about Brizzi</i> <i> and what could drive a man</i>
<i> to commit such a brutal crime.</i> - Stefano Brizzi, at the time of the murder,
was a 49-year-old Italian computer programmer. He was born in a small town in Tuscany in Italy.
It was a very devout Catholic household. Stefano Brizzi realized quite early on that he was gay,
but he kept it a secret for a very long time, no doubt fearing ostracization within his family,
within his community. That would become a lifelong theme for Brizzi, this idea of maybe self-hatred,
a lot of conflicting feelings about his own sexuality. And he struggles with it.
But he does well at school. He goes to university. He gets a very good degree. But it's always there.
Dario van der Kraken: When he came out as gay, the family actually rejected him,
which basically made him feel a lot of shame, shame that he carried with himself.
narrator:<i> In 2012,</i> <i> Stefano Brizzi</i> <i> decides to leave his small</i> <i> town life in Italy behind</i>
<i> and moves to London.</i> Suruthi Bala: Perhaps Brizzi thought he could come to London
and sort of remove the shackles of some of that guilt that he had been feeling around his homosexuality.
Quite soon after he's in London, he gets a job at Morgan Stanley as a computer programmer.
And on the surface, he's living the life. He's an incredibly intelligent, very, very capable man,
working in a top investment bank in the city of London, earning very good money.
And yeah, everything is going his way. But there was a pivotal moment when Stefano Brizzi was diagnosed with hepatitis C
and also with HIV. And he does describe it himself as a sort of punishment from God-- that's how he saw it--
for his homosexual desires. Honor Doro Townshend: During this time, he was also increasingly struggling
with substance abuse. And he had an addiction to crystal meth. And this eventually became such a problem that he lost
his job because of it in 2015. narrator:<i> These</i> <i> events would send</i> <i> Stefano into a downward spiral,</i> <i> which got darker and darker.</i>
Colin Adwent: Gradually, what evolved was he started researching things. And the more that he got involved
in a lifestyle of crystal meth and the dark areas of the online world and then getting more interested
in bondage sexual fantasies, eventually, the darker side of his character took over.
Brizzi developed an interest in satanism, which was the antithesis, really, of the Christian values he grew up with.
Dario van der Kraken: Sometimes when we have the shame, we try to find ways to get rid of it.
And maybe looking at satanism, he was looking for something spiritual that he could find solace in.
Colin Adwent: He ended up becoming the person that he was, which was a respectable figure
cloaked within somebody who ultimately was seen to be a monster. Dario van der Kraken: Brizzi got into the vicious circle
where he tried to find validation or just a bit of a feel-good moment in this chemsex party, which
meant that he was always on dating apps, organizing these sessions. This validation that you get, this feel-good moment that you
get out of these parties, they only last for a couple of hours, a couple of days.
And then you're back on them trying to find the same thing. You're trying to find another fix.
Suruthi Bala: When the police first arrive and they speak to him, his initial conversation with them
is very much a confession. He's talking about how the devil, how Satan told him to do it.
But when he's interviewed under caution, under the cold lights of a police interview room,
he does seem to change his story. I think one of the things was very unusual was he seemed to have been allowed
to keep on his Aviator sunglasses while he was being interviewed, which I've never seen before.
But once he's there, he now stops saying that he did it for the devil. And actually, he goes down the road
of beginning to claim that this was just some sort of sexual game gone wrong. Dario van der Kraken: Brizzi said he did it.
Gordon Semple was choked. He died out of asphyxiation because of sexual practice
called erotic asphyxiation, which is most commonly known as sexual choking. It sits on the riskier side of the spectrum.
Suruthi Bala: And then, in his panic afterwards, he had tried to dispose of the body.
narrator:<i> The manner</i> <i> in which Stefano disposed</i> <i> of Gordon's body was shockingly</i> <i> similar to his favorite TV</i>
<i> show.</i> Colin Adwent: One thing he seemed to have in his mind was an affinity to the TV series,<i> Breaking Bad.</i>
Honor Doro Townshend: Brizzi utilized a couple of chemicals to try and dissolve Gordon Semple's his body
when he was trying to dispose of it. And this is something that they believe he took from<i> Breaking</i> <i> Bad</i> because this
happens in the show. So they believe that he was inspired to try to dispose of Gordon's body
because of what he'd seen on TV. Nick Stocking: His mentality was that he went to local shops
to go and buy items for how to dispose rather than come forward like a normal person would
and, say, call the police. He took it out of his way to go and dispose of that body.
If it was an accident, why didn't he call police straight away? narrator:<i> On the 9th</i> <i> of April, 2016,</i>
<i> Stefano Brizzi is charged with</i> <i> the murder of Gordon Semple.</i> <i> His trial takes place</i> <i> in October that same year.</i>
Honor Doro Townshend: In court, Brizzi pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder.
He tried to maintain that this was the act of a sex game gone wrong and that the death itself was unintentional.
Though the latter destruction of the body, he did admit guilt for. Rough sex or sex game gone wrong
is something that has been presented multiple times before in courts of law as a defense for murder.
However, this is something that, I think, can be massively misused. Because the reality is whilst engaging
in consensual rough sex or BDSM is entirely possible between two adults, you can't
consent to your own death. And so level of extreme violence that it requires to commit a murder
goes beyond potential consensual, fun sexual activities. The reality is, when you choke someone,
they'll pass out after 20 or 30 seconds, but then it'll take a long while for them
to die after that. If you're still continuing with that level of aggression and violence after that point of someone passing out,
then I don't personally believe that that is valid as any form of excuse because, at that point,
you're now causing harm. And there's intention behind that. Colin Adwent: Grindr logs were a crucial part
of the evidence of the prosecution case because they showed the online footprint.
And they showed the contact between Gordon Semple and Stefano Brizzi. Suruthi Bala: Everything that was connecting these men, how
they made that first connection, the plan they had to meet, Gordon Semple coming to the house.
And I think this is, again, adding to the case against Stefano Brizzi. Because while some people may look at this case and think,
OK, he didn't mean to do this. I could believe that he didn't mean to do this. It was an accident.
But even if he could have stopped and he didn't, the man was incredibly high on drugs at the time.
And there is absolutely an argument to be made for what is a very real condition,
something called meth-induced psychosis. But then, you look at the other pieces of evidence
that really, for me, fly in the face of that. The fact that Stefano Brizzi went on to Grindr,
and he was inviting other men to come join them at this chemsex party, and when one of those men
does respond and turn up at 7 o'clock, well, Stefano Brizzi now doesn't seem to be a man who's having a total psychotic break
from reality because he's very able to calmly speak to this man and tell him to go away
because somebody's been sick inside, and he's dealing with it. So for me, to say, he's gone from having
a total psychotic break in which he kills Gordon to then being able to very calmly send this man away,
I don't know. The two don't really add up for me. Colin Adwent: His defense basically
revolved around that Gordon's death was accidental. However, having said to the police
prior to that, when police turned up at his flat, that he had killed Gordon after meeting him on Grindr and Satan
had told him to do it, the judge rejected Brizzi's plea that basically this was an accident.
And because of that, he was convicted of murder by the jury and the judge on the basis of he
murdered Gordon and intended to do so. He was given a minimum term of 24 years in jail.
But ultimately, he had a mandatory life imprisonment sentence. He was serving his sentence at the time at Belmarsh Prison,
which is in London. And in February 2017, he was found dead in his cell. Subsequently, a coroner's court concluded
that he'd taken his own life. narrator:<i> This</i> <i> horrific case shows</i> <i> how social media can</i> <i> both facilitate a crime</i>
<i> and help solve it.</i> Colin Adwent: I think the online world is a force for good, but it also can be a force that can
be used for very bad things. Suruthi Bala: There are risks with using these kind of social media apps,
using these kind of dating apps. When you are meeting up with a stranger who you have no idea who they are,
you're going to their house, that is one of the most shocking things with this case,
is the speed from which Stefano Brizzi and Gordon Semple went from being strangers who had no clue about each other
to being murder victim and murderer. That is absolutely expedited by apps like this.
Dario van der Kraken: The positive aspects of online dating is you are connected to a pool of people
that you wouldn't otherwise meet, so you have a lot of choice. And that is great.
I teach my clients that there are a few signs that you have to be looking out for.
Predators, normally, they tend to rush people into making decisions because they
know that when they shorten the gap between the request and the decision, that's when mistakes happen.
So that's when people are most vulnerable. Suruthi Bala: We are seeing, sadly, an increase in crimes
like this being facilitated through apps like Grindr and also through social media in general.
But simultaneously, we're also seeing the rise of the use of social media in helping the police solve these kind of crimes.
When people become victims in cases like this that are particularly brutal, headline-grabbing,
incredibly salacious, we can forget that these people have families who love them, who miss them.
And Gordon's niece, for example, Kerry Nicholas, she immediately set up a Facebook group
when her uncle went missing. A testament to how loved Gordon was is that within a few days,
thousands of people had joined this Facebook group, all looking for where he was.
Dario van der Kraken: And I think actually social media had a great role in that because it
gave the case more visibility. And that probably made the case being picked up by the police
sooner than it would have otherwise been. Suruthi Bala: It is a tragic story in many, many ways.
Honor Doro Townshend: He was described by his family and friends as a much loved brother,
partner, uncle, cousin. We have this huge community and family around him, and he was very well loved.
- He was a man who would try and do anything for anyone. He was kind, considerate, and would
just be there to help others. [suspenseful music] ♪ ♪

A dating app connected Gordon Semple to his killer, who murdered him after the two arranged a simple date.

This true crime series delves into real cases in the digital age, tracing social media clues throughout investigations to reveal how online footprints expose murder and reshape the pursuit of truth.

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Brief Summary

Gordon Semple was murdered by Stefano Brizzi after meeting on Grindr, highlighting the dangers of online dating.

Key points

The Risks of Online Dating. Experts discuss the dangers associated with dating apps and the potential for manipulation.
Gordon Semple Goes Missing. 59-year-old police officer Gordon Semple is reported missing after failing to return home.
Discovery of a Disturbing Smell. Residents notice a horrific smell coming from Stefano Brizzi's flat, raising suspicions.
Horrific Crime Scene. Inside Brizzi's apartment, police found a scene of extreme violence and body parts everywhere.
Police Encounter with Stefano Brizzi. When police arrived, Brizzi confessed to killing someone, claiming Satan told him to do it.
Cannibalism Speculation. Evidence suggested Brizzi may have consumed parts of the body he dismembered.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was just a nice, kind, gentle person.

Describing Gordon Semple's character.

4:01WatchMay 11, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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