A cannibal killer who strangled and dismembered a policeman he met on Grindr took his own life two months into his life sentence, an inquest found.
Stefano Brizzi, 50, hanged himself in his cell at HMP Belmarsh on February 5 last year.
Two months earlier he had been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 24 years for the murder of Pc Gordon Semple, 59.
Brizzi had been placed on heightened observations while in prison but he was taken off suicide watch around a month before his death.
A jury at an inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court found he died by hanging and recorded a verdict of suicide.
He left a will and letters to his family and friends on his bed, which included the phrase "I die in peace", the inquest heard.
He was described by the jury as an "atypical prisoner" with a "high intellect" who was "frustrated by the limitations of prison life".
Brizzi previously worked as a web developer for merchant bank Morgan Stanley and held degrees in both philosophy and web development.
But he had not held a job since 2014 due to a battle with crystal meth addiction.
He arranged to meet Mr Semple, who was on duty, over the gay dating app Grindr in 2016.
After strangling his victim, Brizzi dismembered the body and tried to dissolve it in acid in the bath.
Police were alerted to the smell of chemicals and decomposing flesh coming from Brizzi's flat on the Peabody Trust Estate in Borough, south-east London, on April 7.
Traces of the victim's body were also found in the oven, a tea strainer and even on some chopsticks, while a bite mark was found on a rib.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here