Man found guilty of murdering two men whose remains were found in suitcases

Yahoo

4 days ago

A man has been found guilty of murdering two men and dumping their remains in suitcases near Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, killed civil partners Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on July 8 last year in their flat in Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London.
Mosquera, who was also staying with the couple, 'decapitated and dismembered' them, froze parts of their remains and brought the rest in suitcases to Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, according to the prosecution.
He repeatedly stabbed Mr Alfonso, who suffered injuries to his torso, face and neck, while Mr Longworth was attacked with a hammer to the back of his head and his skull shattered, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Mr Alfonso enjoyed 'extreme sex' and Mosquera, a Colombian national whom he met online years earlier, was part of that world, jurors heard.
Mr Alfonso was stabbed to death during a filmed session, with footage shown in court recording Mosquera declaring 'do you like it?' and also singing and dancing in the aftermath of the attack.
Mosquera's plan was to hurl the suitcases over the bridge to dispose of the remains after the 'calculated' and 'premeditated' killings, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said.
Mosquera admitted killing Mr Alfonso but claimed it was manslaughter by reason of loss of control.
He pleaded not guilty to murdering both men and insisted Mr Alfonso killed Mr Longworth.
It took a jury five hours and three minutes to unanimously find Mosquera guilty.
He had told the jury he feared for his own life and believed he was about to be killed when he stabbed Mr Alfonso.
Mosquera said he thought Mr Alfonso would do to him what he claimed he had already done to Mr Longworth, he felt 'intimidated' and threats had been made to his family in Colombia.
Mosquera's actions after stabbing Mr Alfonso, including singing and dancing, could have been an outburst as he had been overwhelmed by all that had happened to him, his defence counsel suggested.
The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan KC, said he would sentence Mosquera on October 24.
He said: 'I am not going to pass sentence on you today although the only one I can pass on you is one of life imprisonment.
'I am going to order a psychiatric report on you. It is in your interests to cooperate with the psychiatrist so that I can decide the minimum term you are going to serve.'
The judge also turned to the jury and said: 'I want a psychiatric report on this man. I want to know if there is anything in this case going on that we do not know about.'
He also thanked them personally, saying: 'We put serious demands on jurors, in this case more than most.
'It went on much longer than the two weeks you were expecting. In this case you have had to look at a very tough video.
'They were terrible brutal events and to read about it is a dreadful thing but to see it is really shocking. If you do want to seek help then speak to the court staff – above all, thank you.'
Computer searches for the phrase 'where on the head is a knock fatal?' were made on the day the couple were killed and, under cross-examination, Mosquera could only say there was 'no reason' why he should have done that.
Ms Heer KC told him: 'I suggest that you did that in the morning and why you were searching for 'where on the head is a knock fatal?' is because you were planning to kill Mr Longworth.'
On July 10, Mosquera was driven to Bristol and he told a cyclist who spotted him on the bridge with a large red suitcase and a silver trunk that they contained car parts.
Bridge staff noticed something appeared to be leaking from the red suitcase.
Mosquera said it was oil and the staff shone their torches on the suitcases, he walked past and fled.
Mosquera, who does not speak English, made repeated computer searches to find a freezer in the build-up to the killings.
Many of the searches were in Spanish, some used Google translate and were also made while Mosquera was the only person in the house.
He asked questions about delivery options and several searches were looking for a deep freezer, a chest freezer, a large indoor and outdoor freezer for sale.
In the days before the killings, the phrase 'hammer killer' was tapped into the computer, the jury heard.
The murder video was recorded during a sex session between Mosquera and Mr Alfonso.
It captures them grappling before Mr Alfonso is stabbed. Seconds later Mosquera goes on to the computer to try and plunder from his victims' bank accounts.
Jurors heard he had also attempted to open a bank account using the Scotts Road address.
Immediately after the murders, he accessed a spreadsheet which contained their online banking passwords and he tried to log in to their online bank accounts.
He unsuccessfully tried to send £4,000 to his account in Colombia.
Witness statements, CCTV footage, digital and forensic evidence had to be pieced together to ensure the jury could see it 'was simply impossible for Yostin Mosquera's version of events to be true', Senior Crown Prosecutor Miranda Jollie said after the verdicts.
She said: 'CCTV and employment records proved that Mr Alfonso was at work when Mr Longworth was brutally murdered, and Mosquera's search history on his laptop showed that he was looking to purchase a chest freezer even before committing his first savage killing.
'With a comprehensive timeline mapped out, the weight of evidence stacked up against him and meant that the jury could be sure he was responsible for murdering both victims.'
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Ollie Stride, who led the 'complex and intense' investigation, described it as 'one of the most harrowing murders my team have ever investigated, a case that will stay with many of us for a long time'.
He said: 'Paul and Albert were murdered in the most brutal and callous of ways in their own home.
'The team have consumed hundreds of hours of footage, including some of the utmost disturbing and graphic nature. Those images will stay with all of us for a very long time.'
Detectives worked with Avon and Somerset Police, who arrested Mosquera, and 'many witnesses who provided detailed accounts of events which must have been extremely hard to share'.
They also worked closely with the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group, who provided support, advice and helped monitor the investigation.