Drug user jailed for hiding dead body of man who overdosed inside Holloway wheelie bin

Erik San-Filippo. Picture: Supplied (Image: Archant)

Gerardo Rossi, 52, put the body of 23-year-old Italian national Erik San Fillipo inside a neighbour's recycling bin sometime between May 10 and May 12. He then wheeled the bin up to the overgrown front garden of a disused property in Tollington Road and left it there.

Rossi was sentenced to 16 months in jail at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, December 13, having pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing. He was also ordered to serve a further four months to run consecutively for breaching conditions imposed for a previous suspended sentence.

Mr San-Fillipo previously worked as a chef in Camden and took drugs at Rossi's Tollington Road home in the hours before his death.

A neighbour spotted his missing recycling bin and noticed that a person's legs could be seen protruding from it. He alerted police.

After being arrested, Rossi told officers "I was very scared and didn't know what to do".

Gillian Travers, from the CPS, said: "Gerardo Rossi dumped the body of his friend in a wheelie bin - showing little regard for the dignity of his victim.

"It is a most distressing event for Mr San Fillipo's family, to lose a loved one, and for the defendant to have shown such little respect by concealing his death.

"Rossi was already in breach of a suspended prison sentence for possession of a bladed article. When he realised that his friend had died, instead of alerting the police as he should have done, he decided to move Mr San Fillipo out of his home to avoid police attending his drug den and investigating him further.

"This was an unusual and sad case but I hope this prosecution provides some comfort to the family of Mr San Fillipo and shows that the CPS will take action in similar circumstances."

A charge of prevention of lawful and decent burial of a dead body was left to lie on file.