Three jailed over international crime gang killing of Turkish DJ

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Three men have been jailed for their part in the kidnap, torture and horrific killing of a popular radio DJ by an international organised crime group.

Mehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak were snatched as they returned home from an Italian restaurant in Mayfair, central London, in October 2022.

They were taken to a wine bar backing onto White Hart Lane, where 43-year-old Mr Alpergin, a father of two, was attacked.

His naked body later was dumped in Essex woodland and 34-year-old Ms Dalbudak spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed by her captors.

Dylan Weatherley, 20, from Tottenham, north London, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Alpergin and his kidnap and false imprisonment.

On Thursday, he was jailed at the Old Bailey for five years. This will be added to a sentence he is already serving for a separate conspiracy to murder for which he received life with a minimum term of 16 years.

Kyrie Mitchell-Peart, 33, from Barnet, who had pleaded guilty to the kidnap and false imprisonment of Mr Alpergin and his girlfriend, was sentenced to six years and four months.

Bulgarian painter and decorator Isay Stoyanov, 44, from Seven Sisters in north London, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and jailed for 18 months.

Sentencing, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said: “It is plain that the principle movers recruited others to carry out crimes while avoiding detection themselves.

“Some have fled the jurisdiction. It is clear that whose who were the primary parties who inflicted the appalling suffering on Koray Alpergin have so far escaped justice.”

She said it was a “carefully planned operation” in the context of “the supply of drugs as part of an international organised crime group”.

In a victim impact statement read to court, Ms Dalbudak said: “I was involved in the incidents leading up to and following the murder of Koray and to this day, the ordeal has left lasting trauma on me.

“I am scared of the dark now after being locked up in darkness for two days.

“Furthermore, in the weeks following I could not sleep alone. I often lose focus and drift away with thoughts of the incident in the form of flashbacks.”

The court had previously heard that Mr Alpergin had received 94 separate injuries to his body.

He suffered a blow to the head, was strangled with a ligature, hit with a baseball bat breaking 14 ribs, scalded with boiling water, stabbed on the feet and subjected to horrific internal wounds.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett KC had told jurors: “It is obvious that, before his death, Koray Alpergin had been stripped naked and horrifically tortured.”

The court heard that Mr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, owned a Turkish language radio station in London – Bizim FM – and was a well-known and popular figure within the Turkish community in the UK.

The prosecution alleged that eight men had driven in two vehicles – a white van and a Volkswagen Polo – to the scene of the kidnapping.

It was alleged Weatherley was in the Polo but Stoyanov was not in either car.

A jury was told the group knew Mr Alpergin’s Audi was on its way to Enfield from Mayfair because it had been fitted with a tracking device.

The court heard there was no evidence that Weatherley or Stoyanov were directly involved in the violence meted out on Mr Alpergin.

Stoyanov was implicated in the “clean-up” inside the Stadium Lounge where the victim was killed.

Following a separate trial last year, four more men had been convicted of their roles.

Two more suspects were said to be still at large and were believed to have fled abroad.