Three more men have been convicted of various crimes following the kidnapping and brutal killing of popular DJ Koray Alpergin in North London two years ago.

Dylan Weatherley, 20, from Tottenham, North London, was found guilty on Wednesday, 31 July, of Mr Alpergin’s manslaughter, kidnap and false imprisonment after a trial at the Old Bailey. Weatherley was cleared of offences relating to the abduction of Mr Alpergin’s girlfriend Gözde Dalbudak.

A second man, Bulgarian painter and decorator Isay Stoyanov, 44, from Seven Sisters in North London, had also appeared at the Old Bailey over his part in the killing and was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

The pair will be sentenced on 5 September alongside Kyrie Mitchell-Peart, 32, from Barnet, who had pleaded guilty to the kidnap and false imprisonment of Mr Alpergin and his girlfriend Gözde Dalbudak before the trial had started.

A well-known personality in the British Turkish community, Mr Alpergin and his girlfriend were kidnapped outside his Enfield home after returning there following an evening meal in Mayfair on 13 October 2022. The gang after Mr Alpergin were able to monitor the couple’s movements after fitting a tracker on the DJ’s Audi.

Koray Alperin was tortured and killed at Stadium Lounge

Soon after arriving outside Mr Alpergin’s home, the couple were forced out of their car at knifepoint and bundled into a white van by a group of men. They were taken to Stadium Lounge (previously Ezgi Türkü Bar) – at the time a disused wine bar – near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where 43-year-old Mr Alpergin was “horrifically tortured”.

A postmortem found 94 separate injuries on the father of two’s naked body, which had been dumped in woodland near the Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate in Loughton, Essex, and found by a dog walker two days later.

Ms Dalbudak, 34, who is from Istanbul and had been in London for a brief visit, spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed by her captors and given money to get a taxi. She was interviewed extensively by the police before she returned to Turkiye but refused to attend court out of fear. Her police statements were read to the court during the trial.

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

Jurors at a previous trial last year were told the killing bore “all the hallmarks” of serious organised crime and the world of drugs.

No evidence that Weatherley or Stoyanov were directly involved in violent killing

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

The prosecution alleged that Weatherley was one of eight men who arrived in one of two vehicles – a white van and a Volkswagen Polo – to the scene of the kidnapping. Stoyanov, on the other hand, was implicated in the attempted “clean-up” inside the Stadium Lounge where blood stains and other evidence relating to the victim’s brutal death was found.

Originally from North Cyprus, Mr Alpergin was a co-founder and owner Bizim FM – a popular Turkish language radio station in London. He was a popular figure within the Turkish community in the UK, the court was told.

Following a separate trial last year, four other men were convicted over 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. Kennedy was jailed for 20 years and Kavak for 13 years.

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.

Owusu-Opoku was jailed for seven years, Gordon for eight years and Yigit Hurman, 19, from Muswell Hill, North London, was jailed for two years after he admitted perverting the course of justice.

Two more suspects involved in Mr Alpergin’s kidnapping and murder are believed to have fled abroad.

 

Main image, top, left to right clockwise: Dylan Weatherley, Isay Stoyanov, Kyle Mitchell-Peart and victim Koray Alpergin