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A murdered Turkish radio DJ’s last words to his sobbing girlfriend were “be quiet my love” before she was beaten unconscious by a gang of kidnappers who then killed him, a court heard.
The body of DJ Koray Alpergin, 43, was discovered near the Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate in Loughton, Essex, on October 15 last year.
Mr Alpergin, from Northern Cyprus, owned the Turkish radio station Bizim FM and had connections to celebrities such as rapper P Diddy and internet sensation ‘Salt Bae’.
He was kidnapped from outside his flat in Enfield along with his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak, 34, and they were marched into a white van after returning home from an expensive Italian restaurant in Mayfair, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Alpergin was beaten with a baseball bat and had boiling water poured over him, along with other gruesome torture methods, while Ms Gozde was beaten unconscious and locked in a toilet for two days, jurors were told.
DJ Koray Alpergin, 43, was kidnapped from outside his flat in Enfield with girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak, 34, and they were ‘frog-marched’ into a white van after returning home from an expensive Italian restaurant in Mayfair
His naked body was then dumped in woodland and used vehicles set it on fire before the body was found by a dog walker, the court heard.
Steffan Gordon, 34, Tejean Kennedy, 33, Samuel Owusu-Opuku, 35, Junior Kettle, 32, and Ali Kavak, 26, deny murder and false imprisonment.
Kennedy, Owusu-Opuku, Kettle and Kavak also deny kidnapping Mr Alpergin and Ms Dalbudak on October 13, 2022, while Gordon admits this.
Kavak and Erdogan Ulcay, 56, deny perverting the course of justice by assisting in the disposal of Mr Alpergin’s body or the destruction by fire of a Fiat Diablo van and Renault Megane.
Mehmet Kocakerim, owner of a restaurant called Mem and Laz, told the court today that Ms Dalbudak came to his restaurant after her release by the kidnappers.
He said he had been friends with Mr. Alpergin for 15 years and that he came to his restaurant with Ms. Dalbudak on October 9, 2022.
Koray Alpergin (pictured) was found near the Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate in Loughton, Essex, on October 15 by a dog walker
Mr Alpergin and his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak, 34, (pictured) were kidnapped as they returned to their Enfield home from a Mayfair restaurant on October 13 last year
Mr. Alpergin told him that they had met over the summer and called her “my future wife.”
Mr. Kocakerim said the following Saturday he learned that Mr. Alpergin was missing.
Around 3 p.m., he said someone entered the restaurant.
‘Suddenly a lady came in. At first I thought she was a beggar or something because she had no makeup on and looked really rough and stuff.
‘I approached her and said, ‘How can I help you?’ and she said, ‘Don’t you recognize me?’
‘I said ‘no, I don’t recognize you ma’am’ and she said she was Koray’s friend.
‘She had a bruised nose and bruises under her eyes, she had a large hat on her head and an oversized green coat.’
Mrs. Dalbudak asked him for money so she could pay for the taxi she took to the restaurant.
“She looked scared,” Mr. Kocakerim said.
‘I wasn’t sure if someone was following her or something, I asked if we should call the police.
‘She said she didn’t want the police involved, all she wanted was to get her passport and fly away. I said I don’t think you can do that because everyone is looking for you.
‘She asked if I could use my phone to call her family in Turkey – she called a Turkish number.
“She called and both parties were crying, they were worried.”
Ms Dalbudak was released after being locked in a toilet near Tottenham Stadium in north London for two days, and was mistaken as a homeless person when she tried to get help
A family friend then came to pick her up, he said.
In summaries of her police interviews read out in court today, Ms Dalbudak said she met Mr Alpergin through a friend in Turkey in June 2022.
She said they flirted for a while and after a few months she planned to come to London for about five days so they could get to know each other better.
She arrived on October 10 and had a return booked for October 16.
Mr. Alpergin took her to the sights and to “the best restaurants,” she said, adding that she did not know him very well but that he had shown her affection and she wanted to spend more time with him.
On the night of the kidnapping she wore black leather trousers with boots, a cream top and a cream tench coat.
Ms Dalbudak said a man appeared at the side of the car with a metal bread knife and told her to shut up.
She saw three or four men holding Mr. Alpergin and she was very scared, she said.
Ms. Dalbudak said she was placed in the back of the van and cried loudly;
The men told her to keep quiet and Mr. Alpergin said, “Be quiet, my dear.”
Mrs. Daldubak told police she thought she was going to die.
She said she was knocked unconscious by being punched twice in the face.
Her next memory was being in a dark place and hearing Mr. Alpergin and someone hitting or punching him.
She heard him shout in English. She tried to explain that she was a tourist on vacation and cried a lot, she said.
Her hands and feet were tied and she was blindfolded and made to walk to a toilet where she was locked up.
The toilet had very little light and smelled of fish or dead animals, she said.
Her trench coat, an iPhone, a gold bracelet and a necklace with a heart-shaped diamond pendant that a previous partner had bought for her were taken, she said.
She tried to tell them ‘ticket, Istanbul airport’ and said in her limited English that she was going to Istanbul and not going to the police.
She said she was in a state of fear and panic and wanted to get away as quickly as possible.
Ms Dalbudak later appeared at Kentish Town police station and was placed under special protection after Mr Alpergin was found dead, the court heard.
Parveen Ramjeawon, a friend of Mr Alpergin, told the court the DJ had been subdued after returning from Turkey in September 2022.
She said she had been friends with Mr Alpergin for several years and saw him almost every day in the year before his death at the gym, at his home or at his DJ events.
‘He played Turkish music – the events were aimed at the Turkish community. He went back to Turkey to DJ, go on holiday, see friends and family – usually in the summer.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett, KC, asked how Alpergin was doing when he returned from Turkey in the summer of 2022.
Ms Ramjeawon replied: “He wasn’t himself. He was completely different.
‘He was always a happy guy, he was very caring, very loving, always laughing and joking, he loved to have fun.
‘When he was stressed, he was very quiet. I could tell he was very stressed.
“He said there was a lot going on in his head. He said he said the wrong thing to the wrong person and they wanted to question him.
‘I asked him more, but he never told me anything. He always kept me out of harm’s way.’
Ms Ramjeawon said they went to the gym on September 24 before driving back to Mr Alpergin’s home in their separate cars.
“We were driving down the road and he called me. He told me his car was making a strange noise.
‘I was joking and asked him if his car was bugged.
‘He didn’t respond. He became silent.’
He normally parks in a parking lot across from his apartment, but when we got back he didn’t park there, he said he would park somewhere else and walk to the back door and meet him there.
“I thought that was strange.”
She said they arrived at the flat around 9.30pm and stayed there for about two hours.
‘He was very quiet, preoccupied with his phone and very few conversations.
“When we leave, he normally drops me off at the back of the building, but he didn’t and he told me, when you’re in the parking lot, if you see a white van, let me know.”
Ms Ramjeawon said she has not seen Mr Alpergin again, but has spoken to him by phone and WhatsApp.
‘He was still quiet, he was just never the same. His brain was so busy I knew he was going through something.”
Ms. Ramjeawon said she had not met Ms. Dalbudak, but that Mr. Alpergin had mentioned her.
“I knew she was coming over, but he didn’t want her to come over.
“The day I met him on the 24th, he said they had a lot of problems and were arguing.
‘She booked to come over but he said he didn’t want her to come.
She said she “wouldn’t say it was a relationship.”
‘They weren’t completely together, they just saw each other.
“Around the time she just came over or was coming, we went to the gym together and I said no,” she said.
Kennedy, of Cricklewood Broadway, Cricklewood, Owusu-Opuku, of Dunbar Road, Wood Green, Kettle, of Kingsdown Road, Islington and Kavak, of De Quincey Road, Tottenham, deny murder and two charges of kidnap and false imprisonment.
Gordon, of Dehavilland Close, Northolt, denies murder and two counts of false imprisonment.
Ulcay, of Oakeshott Avenue, Camden and Kavak deny obstruction of justice.
The trial continues tomorrow.