On October 13, 2022, near the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, DJ Mehmet Koray Alpergin, 43, and his girlfriend, Gozde Dalbudak, 34, experienced a night of horror.
The couple was ambushed by six men as they were returning home from an Italian restaurant in the upscale Mayfair district.
In the jury trial that began Wednesday, September 20, it was revealed that a tracking device had been discreetly installed on Alpergin’s vehicle, allowing the assailants to intercept them. Once captured, Dalbudak was threatened at knifepoint and subsequently confined to a restroom in an abandoned wine bar on White Hart Lane for two days. Meanwhile, Alpergin’s battered naked body, bearing numerous injuries including punches, kicks, and wounds from a bat, boiling water, and stabbing, was discovered in the woods near Essex two days later.
Six men, Steffan Gordon, 34, Tejean Kennedy, 33, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, Junior Kettle, 32, Ali Kavak, 26, and Erdogan Ulcay, 56, are currently facing charges including murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and perverting justice.
Lawyer Crispin Aylett made statements in court suggesting that Alpergin was abducted and tortured either as retribution for a prior act or to extract information, possibly related to drugs or money. He emphasized the severe torture Alpergin endured and alluded to the attack’s ties with “organized crime,” particularly drugs.
Recent disclosures hint at Alpergin’s troubled state before the incident. Alpergin, owner of the London-based Turkish-language radio station Bizim FM, was not in his usual cheerful spirits and appeared increasingly anxious. He was engulfed in financial woes, with debts, including a staggering $40,000 for his car alone.
Among the accused, Kennedy, Owusu-Opoku, Kettle, and Kavak have denied charges of murder, false imprisonment, and kidnapping. Gordon has conceded to the kidnapping but refutes the charges of murder and false imprisonment. While both Ulcay and Kavak have countered the perversion allegations, Owusu-Opoku has accepted the perversion charges.