Who were the men in the suitcase found after Acton tragedy
Who were the men in the suitcase? That question has gripped many since the brutal deaths of Albert Alfonso and Paul Longworth came to light, and the details revealed in court have painted a far more complex picture than anyone imagined.
Albert, 62, and Paul, 71, lived together in a London flat. They had once been in a civil partnership after bonding over shared childhood experiences of being fostered. Paul, a retired handyman, was widely known among friends as warm and generous, often described as someone who would happily buy you a drink and sit down for a chat. Kevin Dore, who knew him for more than 20 years in Shepherd’s Bush, told the BBC: “He’s a nice, warm, generous person. Always polite.” Another friend, George Hutchison, said Paul was “just one of the boys” and “never did anybody any harm.”
Albert, originally from Bidart in France, had trained in hospitality in Biarritz before moving to the UK, where he managed hotels including a luxury residential estate on Kensington High Street. More recently, he worked as a swimming instructor and was training to be a lifeguard at a gym in Acton. Friends and colleagues described him as funny, motivated and authoritative. But behind the public image was a private life few knew about, involving adult content creation and online transactions.
This is where Yostin Mosquera enters the story. The Colombian national, now 35, had five brothers, two children, and lived in Medellín. Records show that Albert and Mosquera began speaking on Skype around 2012. By 2017, Albert was paying Mosquera for explicit videos, which became more extreme over time. By October 2023, Mosquera travelled to England to meet Albert in person, staying at his London home at Albert’s expense. During that visit he explored the city, took a river trip on the Thames, visited Madame Tussauds, and even joined Albert’s work football group and a four-week English course.
Paul, though not part of Albert’s online world, seemed to accept it. Friends recall Albert taking Paul to Colombia in March 2024, where they stayed in Cartagena and invited Mosquera to join them. Some warned Paul against travelling there, but he went regardless. Later, the three men spent time together in the UK, including a day trip to Brighton where Mosquera was filmed on a zip-wire.
Financial records show Albert earned over £17,500 from an extreme adult website between September 2022 and July 2024 and sent Mosquera nearly £6,000 across dozens of payments. Mosquera himself earned $2,682.90 from uploading explicit material under pseudonyms. In court, he claimed he had been exploited and did not know his videos were being shared online, despite having signed a consent form in 2023.
Before his July 2024 visit, Mosquera searched online for chest freezers, industrial blenders, deadly poisons and arsenic, and looked into Albert and Paul’s finances. On 8 July 2024, he put his plan into action. While Albert was out, Paul was struck repeatedly with a hammer, his skull shattered and his body hidden in the base of a bed. Later that day, during a recorded session, Mosquera stabbed Albert to death before singing and dancing around the flat. He then tried to transfer £4,000 from Albert’s computer to his own account, withdrew cash from nearby machines, and set about concealing the bodies.
In the days that followed, Mosquera dismembered Albert and Paul, placing their heads in a chest freezer and transporting other remains in suitcases to Bristol. He even hired a man with a van for part of the journey, intending to dispose of the bodies near the city’s suspension bridge.
The deaths left neighbours and friends stunned. Mr Dore said the nature of what happened “broke his heart”. Paul, remembered as kind and self-effacing, and Albert, a man who balanced two very different lives, were both central to each other’s world despite their complicated relationship.
Mosquera was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court and will be sentenced in October.
For more information on how such complex cases are investigated, see Metropolitan Police guidance on serious crime investigations.
For more updates on this case and further insights, visit EyeOnLondon – and we’d love to hear your views in the comments.
[Image Credit | Albert Alfonso – Flikr]
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