Colombian man found guilty of murder after leaving couple's bodies in suitcases on Bristol bridge

Sky News

5 days ago

A Colombian man has been found guilty of two murders after taking his victims' bodies in suitcases to Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge last year.
Yostin Mosquera was found guilty today of the murders of Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso, who were killed in London on 8 July 2024.
Mosquera's victims were 62-year-old Albert Alfonso and his civil partner, 71-year-old Paul Longworth. It is believed that Mosquera, a 35-year-old who worked in the adult film industry, first met Mr Alfonso online.
The three men struck up a friendship, the couple visited Mosquera in Colombia, and they repeatedly flew Mosquera to the UK to stay with them at their flat in London.
While the men would take day-trips to tourist attractions, like Madame Tussauds, Mr Alfonso and Mosquera would engage in extreme sex together.
But in the weeks leading up to their murders, Mosquera was clearly planning his attacks.
He looked online for a freezer and, on the day of the killings, searched for: "Where on the head is a knock fatal?"
The prosecution argued he was financially motivated.
Mosquera repeatedly tried to find the price of the couple's property in Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush, and stole money from Mr Alfonso after murdering him.
On 8 July 2024, Mosquera killed Mr Longworth by hitting him with a hammer, shattering his skull, before hiding his body in a divan bed.
That evening, during sex with Mr Alfonso, Mosquera stabbed him with a knife. A postmortem revealed 22 stab wounds.
All of this was recorded on cameras, which had been placed in the room by Mr Alfonso.
Mosquera then decapitated the bodies, the heads stored in a freezer which he had delivered on 9 July.
The other remains were put in suitcases and on 10 July, Mosquera hired a van with a driver to transport him and the bags to Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The prosecution argued Mosquera went to Bristol with the intention of throwing the bags off the bridge.
But, struggling with their weight, Mosquera caught the attention of passers-by, telling them the cases contained car parts.
But people noticed liquid leaking from the bags - blood.
Mosquera ran off and was later arrested at Bristol Temple Meads station on 13 July 2024 and charged with both murders.
When the case came to trial, initially at the Old Bailey and then at Woolwich Crown Court, the gruesome footage of Mr Alfonso's murder was repeatedly played to the jury.
'It was the worst video I have ever seen'
It is not often a murder is caught on camera.
It is even rarer when they are filmed from multiple angles, with sound.
I was at the Old Bailey for the first trial, where the recording of Mosquera killing Albert Alfonso was repeatedly played to the jury.
The two men are naked, taking part in consensual sex, which was filmed by Mr Alfonso on several cameras, a normal practice for the pair.
Unwittingly, Mr Alfonso recorded his own murder.
We see Mosquera hide the knife.
Then, when Mr Alfonso is at his most vulnerable, Mosquera calmly stabs him in the neck.
Mr Alfonso struggles against Mosquera, screaming, but is overpowered.
Mosquera cruelly taunts him, asking, 'Do you like it?'
As Alfonso lay dying, Mosquera bizarrely sings and dances before going to Alfonso's computer.
The judge warned the jury about the graphic video, reassuring them that, if they felt unable to proceed due to its content, they would be excused.
One jury member did not come back the next day and I could completely understand their discomfort.
The sound of screaming was hard to forget.
A murder is always upsetting to watch, but this felt intrusive.
While many aspects of their sexual relationship could be disturbing to an outsider, Albert Alfonso could never have predicted that his private recordings would be so publicly analysed at a trial into his own murder.
Miranda Jollie, Senior Crown Prosecutor at the CPS, said she found the video "horrific," but maintained that it was necessary to show the video because of Mosquera's claims.
Mosquera denied the murders, but admitted killing Mr Alfonso, his defence team argued it was manslaughter by loss of control.
However, the video evidence contradicts this claim.
It shows Mosquera had hidden the knife before sex, showing the attack was premeditated.
He was also calm as he attacked Mr Alfonso, who was taken off guard, and went to Mr Alfonso's computer to try and steal from him as he lay dying.
In court, Mosquera argued, through a Spanish interpreter, that Mr Alfonso had repeatedly "raped him" and that Mr Longworth had been killed by Mr Alfonso.
But the prosecution argued there was no evidence to support these claims, while the couple's relationship was unconventional, it was also "loving", and Mr Alfonso would never have killed Mr Longworth.