Suitcase remains trial collapses as jury in murder case discharged
15 May 2025, 12:11 | Updated: 15 May 2025, 16:58
The jury in a case relating to a man accused of murdering two men and dumping their remains in suitcases has been discharged.
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Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, denied murdering Albert Afonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on or before 11 July 2024.
His trial at the Old Bailey in London has now been dropped.
He was accused of decapitating a couple before taking some of their remains in suitcases to the Clifton Suspension Bridg
Parts of their bodies were discovered in Shepherd's Bush, while other parts were found in a suitcase and car boot left near the infamous Bristol bridge.
Read more: Man whose body found in suitcase ‘raped and blackmailed teenager’
The case was opened on 30 April by the protection. The jury has since been discharged by Mr Justice Bennathan.
He said issues identifying the accurate times of searches made by Mosquera on his laptop arose, which had been used as evidence in the trial.
The trial "simply cannot continue", he told jurors.
"We simply have to resolve this before we have a fair trial," he added.
He thanks the jurors for their service and apologised for where the trial "ended up".
Mosquera has admitted to the manslaughter of Mr Alfonso by loss of self-control, but denies murder.
The prosecution claims Mosquera was “in complete control” of his “strategic and premeditated” actions.
Jurors previously heard that two days after Mr Alfonso’s killing, CCTV shows Mosquera walking backwards as he drags a heavy red suitcase along Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol at about 11.23pm.
He could be seen peering over a bridge wall and trying to rub away a mark, that was left on the floor where the suitcase had been, with his foot. He then urinates on it, the court heard.
He is approached by two members of staff who manage the bridge, who are called away to an appointment.
At about 11.30pm a cyclist making his way across the Clifton Suspension Bridge spotted Mosquera standing next to a large red suitcase and stopped to see if he was OK, thinking he was a tourist, jurors had heard.
The witness also saw a large silver trunk a few metres away from the defendant, and Mosquera told him the luggage contained car parts.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said: “In fact, the suitcases contained the decapitated and dismembered bodies of Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso, which the defendant had transported to Bristol from their home in London where they had been killed two days before.”
The prosecution alleged Mosquera took the suitcases to the landmark to “dispose” of them.
A pre-trial review hearing for Mosquera is set to be held at the Old Bailey on 13 June.
A provisional retrial date has been set for 30 June at Woolwich Crown Court.
