The traumatised girlfriend of a popular radio DJ who was killed in a bar near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is in hiding in Istanbul, according to a report.
Two men were on Friday found guilty of the manslaughter of Mehmet Koray Alpergin, who was snatched alongside his girlfriend Gozde Dalbudak as they returned home from an Italian restaurant in Mayfair last October.
The Old Bailey heard how they were taken to an empty wine bar backing on to White Hart Lane, where 43-year-old Mr Alpergin was said to have been beaten, throttled, scalded with boiling water, stabbed, maimed and horrifically violated.
Ms Dalbudak spent two days locked in a toilet by the abductees.
According to the Mail Online, Ms Dalbudak did not want to give evidence at the trial because she was “traumatised” and could not face returning to London from her native Turkey.
A source told the publication: “She gave a statement to police after it happened, but she was desperate to get home to her family and loved ones.
“She knew that nothing she could say would ever bring back Koray. She did not want to talk about it and just wants to put it all behind her.”
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told how she recalled her boyfriend telling her “my love, don’t be scared” and “sorry, my love” before he cried out in pain as he was beaten.
The trial heard the killing bore “all the hallmarks” of serious organised crime.
Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, was found guilty of two counts of kidnap. Steffan Gordon, 34, had admitted kidnap and was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment.
Mr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known and popular figure in the British Turkish community.
He owned a Turkish language radio station in London, Bizim FM, and had in the past been pictured with celebrities from the worlds of high-end cuisine and rap.
Prosecutors told the court: "The prosecution allege that Koray Alpergin was kidnapped and tortured either so that he might be punished for something that he had done or else forced to give up something that he knew – perhaps the whereabouts of either drugs or money – and which his kidnappers also wanted to know.”
Mr Alpergin’s naked body was later found by a dog walker after being dumped in woods near Loughton in Essex on October 15.
