Popular DJ tortured to death by ‘sadistic thugs’ who locked his girlfriend in a toilet for two days, court told

21 September 2023, 09:48

"Sadistic thugs” tortured a popular radio DJ to death near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a killing bearing the hallmarks of serious organised crime, a court has been told.

Mehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend were abducted as they returned home from an expensive Italian restaurant in Mayfair, central London last October, the Old Bailey heard.

The assailants had allegedly installed a tracking device on Alpergin’s car, the jury was told.

They were taken to an empty wine bar backing on to White Hart Lane, where Mr Alpergin, 43, was allegedly beaten, throttled, scalded with boiling water, stabbed, maimed and violated.

His body was later dumped in Essex woodland and his 34-year-old girlfriend, Gozde Dalbudak, spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed, jurors were told.

Six men are on trial at the Old Bailey variously accused of murder, kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Opening their trial Crispin Aylett KC said: “The prosecution allege that Koray Alpergin was kidnapped and tortured either so that he might be punished for something that he had done or else forced to give up something that he knew – perhaps the whereabouts of either drugs or money — and which his kidnappers also wanted to know.

“It is obvious that before his death Koray Alpergin had been stripped naked and horrifically tortured.

“From the number and nature of the injuries sustained, the prosecution suggests that it is not hard to envisage a group of sadistic thugs taking it in turns to inflict injury, whether with punches and kicks, hitting him with a bat, scalding him with boiling water, stabbing his feet.”

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Jurors heard that Mr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known and popular figure in the British Turkish community and owner of a Turkish language radio station in London, Bizim FM.

Before his death, he had seemed anxious and on edge rather than his usual “happy-go-lucky” self, jurors heard.

Steffan Gordon, 34, of Northolt, Tejean Kennedy, 33, of Cricklewood Broadway, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, of Wood Green, Junior Kettle, 32, of Archway, Ali Kavak, 26, from Tottenham, and Erdogan Ulcay, 56, from Camden are in the dock.

Gordon, Kennedy, Owusu-Opoku, Kettle and Kavak deny murder and two counts of false imprisonment.

Kennedy, Owusu-Opoku, Kettle, and Kavak deny kidnapping the two victims, which Gordon admits.Ulcay and Kavak also deny perverting the course of justice which allegedly included disposing of Mr Alpergin’s body and destroying two vehicles by fire. Owusu-Opoku has admitted the charge.

The trial before Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC continues.