Man convicted over death of ‘horrifically tortured’ radio DJ

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

A man has been found guilty of killing a popular radio DJ who was kidnapped and “horrifically tortured” near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

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

A post-mortem examination revealed 94 separate injuries on Mr Alpergin’s 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 Dylan Weatherley, 20, from Tottenham, north London, was in the Polo but his co-accused Isay Stoyanov was not in either car.

The 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.

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

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

He said the defendant had been “rather careless” and his DNA was recovered from a blue latex glove, a can of Red Bull and a white plastic cup.

His fingerprint was also found on a large refrigerator used to block the exit from the lavatories, the court was told.

On Wednesday, Weatherley was found guilty of Mr Alpergin’s manslaughter, kidnap and false imprisonment but cleared of offences relating to Ms Dalbudak’s abduction.

Bulgarian painter and decorator Stoyanov, 44, from Seven Sisters in north London, was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

The pair will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on September 5 with Kyrie Mitchell-Peart, 32, from Barnet, who had pleaded guilty to the kidnap and false imprisonment of Mr Alpergin and Ms Dalbudak.

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

Tejean Kennedy, 33, and Ali Kavak, 26, were found guilty of the kidnap and false imprisonment of the couple and Mr Alpergin’s manslaughter.

Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 36, was found guilty of two counts of kidnap, while Steffan Gordon, 35, had admitted kidnap and was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment.

Kavak was also convicted of perverting the course of justice by helping to dispose of Mr Alpergin’s body and destroying two vehicles by fire. Owusu-Opoku admitted the charge.

Yigit Hurman, 19, from Muswell Hill, north London, admitted perverting the course of justice.

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