Breaking Bad obsessed Stefano Brizzi once posted a disturbing commentary online in which he appeared to wrestle with his desire to use crystal meth.
The 50-year-old sadomasochist strangled Gordon Semple, who is originally from Inverness, at his south London home on April 1 before trying to dissolve the body in a bath of acid.
Brizzi invited Mr Semple to his home – after the pair met on the gay dating app Grindr – for a “sexchem” party which involves people having sexual encounters while taking drugs to heighten sexual arousal.
During his trial, the Italian told the court that he became addicted to crystal meth and quit his job at Morgan Stanley in 2015.
In the online post, Brizzi is pictured holding a jar of Nutella and a background of a TV screen showing the start of a Breaking Bad episode. It emerged during the trial that Brizzi referred to crystal meth as “Nutella”.
Brizzi’s online post appeared alongside the photograph, and sets a scene of him getting ready to watch an episode, adding: “Well, I’ll be thinking of doing all the wrong things!”
The tone moves to anger as he refers to an earlier part of his day when a friend “criticised” him for drinking a half pint of beer.
Brizzi states: “I just don’t understand the way some people think. How can you compare a half pint of beer with a dose? It seems to me, some people don’t have a sense of proportion.
“It’s always so easy to judge… You know what? I don’t care. I am an independent man and I can make my own decisions. I don’t need anybody’s validation. And most of all, I sure as hell don’t need to be trapped into some kind of cult where I’m told what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Brizzi moves to the present and remarks that he is going to “drink a bit, justifying his choice by classing himself as a moderate drinker, adding that this is “still better than picking up”.
He adds: “OK, so, now I keep watching my Breaking Bad episode… But I still feel like something is missing. Like a dessert, or something… Something to comfort me and give me pleasure… If I think about it, it would be so easy to just step outside and buy another dose… That would be the second this week. But I must resist… right?
“And yet, the thought just keeps nagging at me… again and again… In the back of my mind… Mercilessly. Obsessively… Seriously, why do I have to feel as if I had an angel sat on one should and a devil on the other?
“You know what? I want it so much… I don’t mind if I have to dress up all over again, actually… I’m dressing up. I’m going out. I’m going to buy another dose. Yes, I’m gonna buy it. Another jar of Nutella.”