Colombian man to serve minimum 42 years in UK prison for grisly double murder

LONDON (AP) — A 35-year-old Colombian man was sentenced Friday to a life sentence with a minimum term of 42 years after murdering two men in their London apartment and then dumping their remains in suitcases in southwest England.

Yostin Andres Mosquera killed Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, in July last year with a hammer and a knife, in a double murder that London police described as one of the “most harrowing” they have witnessed.

In his sentencing remarks at Woolwich Crown Court in east London, Judge Joel Bennathan said Mosquera may never be released if he doesn’t meet the parole requirements when his minimum tariff expires. Accounting for the time already spent in prison, Mosquera won’t be eligible for release for more than 40 years.

While describing the murders as “premeditated and thoroughly wicked,” the judge did not impose a whole-life order on Mosquera, which would mean he would never be eligible for parole. He said that was partly because of his lack of previous convictions in Colombia or the U.K., and the fact that he “may have been brutalized” as a child when witnessing the murder of other children.

Mosquera was convicted by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court in July. On Friday, he also pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child pornography.

Mosquera, who was staying with the couple, decapitated and dismembered them, then froze parts of their remains and took the rest to the city of Bristol.

Mosquera was arrested at a train station in Bristol, three days after the grisly discovery of body parts in suitcases on the city’s Clifton Suspension Bridge. Police found more remains at the victims’ home in London.

Police expressed the trauma of watching footage of Mosquera’s murder of Alfonso during an extreme sex session. Filming formed a regular part of their sexual relationship. Alfonso had met Mosquera online years earlier.

“The team have consumed hundreds of hours of footage, including the murder of Albert Alfonso,” said Detective Chief Inspector Ollie Stride of the Metropolitan Police. “Those images will stay with all of us for a very long time.”

After killing his victims, Mosquera used a computer to try to steal money from his victims’ bank accounts.

The judge said he was “sure” Mosquera hoped to sell the couple’s flat and that the attacks were “undoubtedly murders committed for gain.”