Double murderer who dumped remains in suitcases jailed for at least 42 years

A double murderer has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 42 years, after killing a couple and dumping their remains in suitcases near Clifton Suspension Bridge in “premediated and thoroughly wicked crimes”.

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 staying with the couple, “decapitated and dismembered” them, froze parts of their remains and took the rest to the Bristol landmark.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court unanimously convicted Mosquera of both murders earlier this year, and he pleaded guilty at the same court earlier on Friday to three counts of possessing child pornography.

Sentencing him to two life sentences for the two murders, which will run concurrently to each other, Mr Justice Bennathan told the defendant: “Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso were a settled, affectionate couple.

“It was their tragedy that you, Yostin Mosquera, came into their lives.

“I now have to sentence you for these premeditated and thoroughly wicked crimes.”

Mosquera, who wore what appeared to be a wooden crucifix necklace and sat in the dock assisted by a Spanish interpreter, appeared to be smiling as he left at the end of the hearing.

Earlier on Friday, the judge jailed the defendant for 16 months after he admitted possessing at least 1,500 category A photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, including videos, 750 category B images and 4,000 category C images.

That jail term will run concurrent to the life sentences.

Mosquera repeatedly stabbed Mr Alfonso, who suffered injuries to his torso, face and neck. Mr Longworth was attacked with a hammer on the back of his head and his skull was shattered.

Mr Alfonso enjoyed extreme sex and Mosquera, a Colombian national he met online years earlier, was part of that world.

The judge said the relationship was “transactional”, in that Mr Alfonso paid Mosquera, but it was “legal and consensual”.

Mr Alfonso was stabbed during a filmed session, and footage played in court showed Mosquera asking “do you like it?”, and singing and dancing after the attack.

Seconds later he used a computer to try to steal from his victims’ bank accounts.

Mr Justice Bennathan said he was “sure” Mosquera hoped to sell the couple’s flat after killing them, and later added that the attacks were “undoubtedly murders committed for gain”.

He described Mr Alfonso as “a hardworking man who had shown (Mosquera) kindness and generosity” and Mr Longworth as a “harmless, amiable person who had done (the defendant) no wrong”.

Computer searches for the phrase “where on the head is a knock fatal?” were made on the day the couple were killed, and the defendant made repeated searches to find a freezer in the lead-up to the attacks.

On July 10, Mosquera was driven to Bristol and 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 which Mosquera told them was oil.

When they shone their torches on the suitcases, he fled.

“I am sure that your aim was to throw the cases full of body parts off the bridge in an attempt to dispose of them,” Mr Justice Bennathan 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 claimed Mr Alfonso killed Mr Longworth, telling the jury he believed he was about to be killed when he stabbed Mr Alfonso.

He said he felt intimidated and that threats had been made to his family in Colombia.

The judge referenced a psychiatric report which concluded Mosquera has “no diagnosed mental state” that would mitigate his crimes.

The report included an account of Mosquera witnessing the killing of other children when he was at school in a town in Colombia, which one doctor believed “may have shaped” the way he views violence.

“Although it is a slight finding expressed in cautious terms, it may be it provides some partial explanation for your callous and brutal conduct in killing two harmless older men,” he said.

The judge decided not to impose a whole-life order, partly because of Mosquera’s lack of previous convictions, and the fact that he “may have been brutalised” as a child by witnessing the murder of other children.