A Breaking Bad fanatic accused of strangling to death a gay policeman before dismembering his body had a smell of "gone off meat" in his flat, a court heard today.

Stefano Brizzi, 50, is accused of murdering 59-year-old PC Gordon Semple after they met through the gay dating app Grindr for a drug-fuelled sex session on April 1.

Brizzi was arrested on April 7 after neighbours complained of the foul stench coming from his flat on the Peabody Estate in Southwark, south London, the court heard.

He answered the door to police wearing pink Y-fronts and aviator sunglasses, the Old Bailey was told.

PC Semple, who was originally from Inverness in Scotland but lived in Greenhithe, was reported missing by his partner, Gary Meeks after he failed to return home from work.

Giving evidence today, PC Charlotte Edwards described how she and a colleague found a bath full of acid with globules of flesh floating in it.

After they entered the flat, the stench hit them, which she described as, "a very strong meat smell - gone off meat".

Despite only wearing sunglasses and pink y-fronts, she said Brizzi seemed: "Not embarrassed. I would say not shocked either.

"It was such an immediate opening of the door, it was as if he knew we were coming."

She headed towards the bathroom, and saw a blue-green coloured liquid in the bath tub.

She asked Brizzi if there was anything he wanted to tell her, and he replied, "I have tried to dissolve the body. I have killed a police officer", jurors heard.

PC Edwards continued: "He said I killed him last week. I met him on Grindr and I killed him. Satan told me to.

"I tried to dissolve him in there."

But she was unaware an officer had been reported missing, and was initially sceptical of his claims, the court heard.

Meanwhile, her colleague PC Savage left the bathroom, and seemed "shocked", the court heard.

PC Edwards said: "I believe she indicated to me to come and have a look. We didn't really speak."

She said she entered the bathroom and opened one of the black bin liners on the floor.

Questioned about what she saw, the officer said: "I called it a carcass. It's sort of like after you have cooked a chicken and eaten it, and that's what's left."

Turning to the bath, she said: "It was quite gloomy. Although it was that colour, it wasn't see-through. You couldn't see to the bottom.

"On the top, there was like a layer of fat. Quite small fatty globules."

The floor seemed "slimy", she said, adding: "It was like you have got raw meat and what's left after you have taken it out of the container."

The toilet was repeatedly flushing, "like it had got something stuck", she told the court.

She described the floor as "being very slippery", and the room smelt strongly of chemicals, with several containers full of liquid on the floor.

The two police officers also discovered a human hand in one of the bin bags, the court heard.

Brizzi also told them he had tried to flush the "flabbery" bits down the toilet, it was said.

Pc Edwards said: "The police were coming. He flushed the flabbery bits down the toilet."

Brizzi got dressed, after pointing to a patch on his bedroom floor and telling her, "that's where I shat myself", the court heard.

She told police they had found a carcass, although remained unsure whether it was a human or animal, it was said.

At one point as they were leaving Brizzi tried to "lunge" into the kitchen to reach something, and there was a "very slight struggle", before they left the flat.

PC Edwards said she believed he was reaching for a cigarette.

They left the flat with him as more police arrived, the court was told.

The court also heard from Brizzi's neighbour Stephen Harris, who said he had answered the door wearing aviator sunglasses, and looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

After hearing of complaints about a smell, he knocked on Brizzi's door with a caretaker on April 4, but no one answered, the court heard.

The witness said: "The only time I could smell it was when he opened the letter box.

"I said to him it smelt like a dead body."

An hour later, he popped back down and noticed a candle outside the flat, and Brizzi opened the door to him.

He told the court: "I said to him, 'excuse me mate, there has been a complaint about a bad smell in the block'.

"He said to me, 'I am sorry about that, I am just cooking for a friend. That is the reason I put the candle outside'.

"I think the caretaker was going to ring up the police. I said, 'don't bother ringing up the police, I have just spoken to the person in number five'."

Brizzi was wearing aviator sunglasses, and "he did remind me of Tom Cruise in Top Gun", he added.

Later in the week, on April 7, he saw his brother Martin and told him about the smell, who advised he called the police, and they returned to the estate.

Holding his badge from the Coastal Forces Veterans' Association out to give him a look of authority, Martin knocked on Brizzi's door.

Giving evidence, Martin Harris said there was a smell of "death" in the block.

He said: "As soon as the bottom door was open, the communal door, I knew it was death. Putrid."

Martin banged on the door, and Brizzi answered the door after a couple of minutes.

He said: "He had his glasses on, and trying to put a bathrobe on, but he looked like he had just got out of bed.

"They looked like Speedos - small pants."

Asked how he seemed, he said: "Cool as a cucumber."

Martin asked what the smell was, and he replied, "I am cooking for a friend", the court was told.

Police arrived shortly afterwards.

Another neighbour who lived directly above, Meredith Bennett, said she heard banging on April 2 which sounded like someone hammering nails into wood.

The smell also got worse over the days, and by April 6 she feared an old person had died, jurors heard.

In a statement read to the court, she said: "I heard some banging, it sounded like nails being hammered into wood.

"It sounded as if it was coming from the corresponding room in the flat below. It didn't go on for long, maybe ten minutes.

"I didn't notice anything unusual from Monday to Wednesday, the 4th to the 6th.

"But the smell got worse from Monday to Wednesday.

"At first I thought it was a bin that had been left outside. I was waiting for the cleaners to come on Wednesday to sort it out

"On Thursday, the 7th of April, the smell was much stronger, and I was concerned an old person had died."

She reported the smell to the estate caretakers later that day.

Brizzi, of Southwark, south London, denies murder but admits obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty.

The trial continues.