Globs of human fat floating in a bathtub like some kind of messed-up, flesh-filled snowglobe: not quite what two beat cops were expecting when they knocked on  Stefano Brizzi’s door, after neighbours reported a disturbing smell emanating from the house.

Even when Brizzi answered the door in nothing but a pair of speedos, and told them “I killed a police officer and I did it for the devil”, they couldn’t have imagined the foul blue human stew waiting for them upstairs.