A satanist who was jailed for life for killing a Kent policeman during a drug-fuelled sex session before chopping up the body and dissolving it in acid has been found dead in his cell.

Stefano Brizzi, 50, was sentenced on December 12 last year after the murder of 59-year-old Gordon Semple, from Greenhithe on April 1.

Brizzi died in custody at Belmarsh yesterday, a prison spokesman confirmed.

They said: “HMP Belmarsh prisoner Stefano Brizzi died in custody on Sunday, February 5. As with all deaths in custody there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.”

The Italian had denied murder at the Old Bailey back in November, but was later convicted and jailed for life with a minimum of 24 years.

He admitted one count of obstructing a coroner by dismembering the body, which he received a seven-year sentence for, to run concurrent.

The Breaking Bad fan had met PC Semple through gay dating app Grindr for drug-fuelled "hot dirty sleazy" sex before killing him, dismembering the body, and then using perforated metal sheets to grate the flesh from the bones.

He cooked and tried to eat parts of the body, with PC Semple's DNA found on chopsticks, in a cooking pot and in the oven, before dissolving the remains in acid over the next few days, which Brizzi admitted was inspired by an episode of Breaking Bad.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, told Brizzi during the sentencing: “Your attempts to conceal what happened, and dismember and destroy his body, are terrible features of the case.”

Brizzi and Mr Semple had taken crystal meth and played a sex game which involved a leather-clad Brizzi sitting on the officer's face and tightening a leash around his neck.

Brizzi, a former web developer for the bank Morgan Stanley who moved to London in 2011, had denied killing him and claimed PC Semple had accidentally died in a "state of erotic bliss" when the lead around his neck slipped.

Brizzi was arrested on April 7 after neighbours complained of a foul stink from his flat.

Met Police officers arrived at his flat, which had a strong stench of "gone off meat", to find him wearing pink Y-fronts and aviator sunglasses, and acting "as cool as a cucumber".

After the sentencing, Met Commander Nick Downing, said: "Brizzi has shown no remorse for his actions, since the time of his arrest and throughout his trial.

"With today's sentence a dangerous man, whose cold calculated actions were deeply disturbing, is behind bars."