A Turkish radio station owner and DJ was abducted and killed by a gang who installed a tracker on his car and snatched him as he neared his home, a court has heard.
Mehmet Koray Alpergin and his girlfriend, Gozde Dalbudak, were both abducted in north London after leaving a restaurant in Mayfair, central London, the court was told.
Mr Alpergin was tortured and killed and Ms Dalbudak was found two days later, the Old Bailey was told.
Mr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known and popular figure in the British Turkish community and the owner of a Turkish-language radio station in London, Bizim FM.
"Sadistic thugs" were behind the abduction and killing, which bore the hallmarks of organised crime, the court heard.
They were taken to an empty wine bar backing on to White Hart Lane, near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, where Mr Alpergin, 43, was allegedly beaten, tortured and killed.
His body was dumped in woodland in Essex and Ms Dalbudak spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed, jurors were told.
Before his death, he had seemed anxious and on edge rather than his usual happy-go-lucky self, jurors heard. He was also said to have been heavily in debt with a string of claims against him, including £32,405 ($39,866) for his Audi.
Six men are on trial at the Old Bailey variously accused of murder, kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
Steffan Gordon, 34, of Northolt, Tejean Kennedy, 33, of Cricklewood Broadway, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, of Wood Green, Junior Kettle, 32, of Archway, Ali Kavak, 26, from Tottenham, and Erdogan Ulcay, 56, from Camden, are in the dock.
Gordon, Kennedy, Owusu-Opoku, Kettle and Kavak deny murder and two counts of false imprisonment. Kennedy, Owusu-Opoku, Kettle, and Kavak deny kidnapping the two victims, which Gordon admits.
Ulcay and Kavak also deny perverting the course of justice, which allegedly included disposing of Mr Alpergin's body and destroying two vehicles by fire. Owusu-Opoku has admitted the charge.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett KC said: "It is obvious that before his death Koray Alpergin had been stripped naked and horrifically tortured.
"From the number and nature of the injuries sustained, the prosecution suggest that it is not hard to envisage a group of sadistic thugs taking it in turns to inflict injury.”
On the evening of October 13 last year, his attackers had been lying in wait for him and Ms Dalbudak after one of them installed the tracking device, it was claimed.
As they returned home to Enfield, father-of-two Mr Alpergin was bundled into a white van, while Ms Daldudak was led over to the vehicle by a masked knifeman, it was alleged.
The van and two cars drove away in convoy to an alleyway in Tottenham, jurors were told.
Mr Aylett said: "It was here, in the stadium lounge, that Koray Alpergin was murdered.
"As for Godze Dalbudak, she spent almost two days shut up inside a lavatory at the stadium lounge. It was not until the late afternoon of Saturday October 15 that she was released."
Mr Alpergin's body was taken to Loughton in Essex, where it was dumped in woods on October 15 and found by a dog walker a few hours later.
Mr Aylett said a post-mortem examination identified 94 separate injuries to his body, which was covered in cuts and bruises.
Mr Aylett told jurors: "This was, on any view, a terrible crime and one in which a large number of people played some part."
The use of vehicles with false number plates which were later burnt out bore "all the hallmarks of being linked to serious, organised crime - almost certainly drugs", it was alleged.
Mr Aylett told jurors: "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."
The trial continues.
