Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast - #313: A Date with Death (Mehmet Koray Alpergin & Gozde Dalbudak)27/8/2025 
Triple nominated at the True Crime Awards and nominated Best British True-Crime Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, also hailed as 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Channel's Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
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EPISODE THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN: On Thursday the 13th of October 2022 at 8:30pm, an attractive Turkish-Cypriot couple (Koray & Gozde) left the Amazonico restaurant at 10 Berkley Square in Mayfair. Keen to impress his date, Koray treated Gozde to an easy evening of fine dining, fun chat and fancy cocktails. Being her first trip to London, it began with three days of sightseeing across this wonderful capital city, and she hoped, some romance. Yet a few hours later it would end in a kidnapping, torture and murder. But how did it all go wrong?
THE LOCATION:
I've stopped adding the pin to the map, as MapHub are now demanding £8 a month, and I'll be damned if I'm forking out hard earned cash for something probably one person looks at a month.
SOURCES: a selection sourced from various archives:
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT: How did a romantic date end in a brutal gangland murder? Find out on Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing on Berkeley Square in Mayfair, W1; one street south of Jeanne Western’s flat, one street east of the killing of Roberto Troyan, two streets west of Annie Sutton and the stalker within, and a few doors down from the spree-killer who forgot to pack a map - coming soon to Murder Mile. At 10 Berkeley Square – you know, just down from the Ferrari showroom and Damien Hurst’s gallery – is Amazonico, a luxurious Latin American restaurant where mere plebs like us can dine like a king in an artificial jungle for a price which will definitely make your top lip sweat. And with a range of caviars, wagyu and yellowtail, you too can look truly out of your depth as you mop up a microscopic speck of meat in a dribble of sauce, and ask the waiter “yup, tastes fine mate, but where’s the rest my dinner?” On Thursday the 13th of October 2022, as Britain neared the end of Liz Truss’ disastrous 45 days as our Moron in Chief, an attractive Turkish-Cypriot couple (Koray & Gozde) dined at this restaurant. Keen to impress his date, Koray treated Gozde to an easy evening of fine dining, fun chat and fancy cocktails. Being her first trip to London, it began with three days of sightseeing across this wonderful capital city, and she hoped, some romance. Yet a few hours later it would end in a kidnapping, torture and murder. But how did it all go wrong? My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 313: A Date with Death. It was dark. Everything was dark, as across Gozde’s face, a blindfold blocked out every hint of light, so when she came to, she didn’t know if it was day or night. Hours before, her make-up was pristine, but now, it ran in black rivers down her cheeks as hours of tears had left it smeared. She was scared, but what she felt most was pain as her nose was swollen, maybe broken, as blood dripped down her chin. Briefly, she couldn’t remember where she was and couldn’t see, but even through the blood and snot, with an overpowering smell of shit and piss, she knew she was sat on a toilet, but it wasn’t hers or any place she knew, as besides the persistent drip which leaked from a rusty pipe and echoed as it splashed onto the concrete floor, she could also smell a stench of rotting meat, something foul and decaying. Gozde couldn’t reach out to feel what was around her, as her hands were bound to her tied ankles leaving her bent in an painful position which made her legs cramp. But as she stretched out her legs, her boots quickly clipped the sides of what was likely to be the tiled walls of a cramped toilet cubical. Hours before - with her blonde hair freshly coiffured, wearing black boots, black leather trousers, a cream top and a cream trench coat, all stylish and expensive – she had dressed for a dream date in a high-end restaurant with a handsome man she liked but barely knew, and it had ended in a nightmare. She was the victim of a kidnapping by maybe 10 or 15 men whose language she didn’t speak, and from a nearby room, she could hear them beating and torturing someone like hyaenas attacking their prey. She was petrified, but was she next? 33-year-old Gozde Dalbudak was born and raised in the Turkish capital city of Istanbul. Like many born on the cusp of the 1990s, she was raised in a modern era and sought out dreams far beyond the limited imaginations of many parents, being part of the Instagram generation. As a stunning slim blonde who dressed to impress, her life revolved around meeting nice people, and being single, maybe a boyfriend. In June 2022, as the world slowly opened up post-Covid, her friend Nilay Toprak, a Turkish social media influencer and actress who owned her own beauty salon was hosting a party and introduced Gozde to a family friend she had known for eight years; his name was Koray and rightly she liked him instantly. Mehmet Koray Alpergin was born in February 1979 in Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus. Raised humbly in the post-coup era which left the country split into two, with his parents he moved to Britain seeking a better life, and succeeded as his father ran a successful restaurant in Stoke Newington, East London. Like his father, Koray was hardworking and business-minded. Granted British citizenship in 2001, aged 22, he worked for a decade as a bus driver to ensure that he provided for his wife, Eleonora and their son and daughter, and even when the marriage fell apart, he remained a loyal and loving family man. Like Gozde, he didn’t want to work a thankless job for wages, he wanted to live the dream, and as a tall handsome man with a smooth voice and a warm personality, in his spare-time, he worked as a DJ at LTR, a pirate radio station which broadcast to north London’s Turkish Cypriots; he was popular, successful and being savvy, he later owned it, renaming it as Bizim FM, the Turkish word for ‘ours’. And although ‘pirate radio’ might suggest it was operating illegally, as many did, in 2010, Koray got a suspended sentence under the Wireless & Telegraphy Act as its transmitter was on top of a tower block and risked scrambling air traffic control, but having reshaped the business, today Bizim FM is the only fully licensed Turkish radio station broadcasting 24/7 outside of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Koray was a well-liked and popular figure in the UK’s Turkish community. As a DJ, he mentored many singers and songwriters giving them their first taste of fame and success. And nobody had a bad word to say about him; "Koray was very loyal, someone that you could rely on”, “he was funny, he loved to laugh”, “he was always kind and a true gentleman”, and dedicating large chunks of his life to raising funds for children’s cancer charities, he was widely regarded as a pillar in the Turkish community. Although maybe not a well-known name to those outside of his circles, Koray was a celebrity; he lived the high life, he wore stylish clothes, he drove a £35000 Audi, he dined in fancy restaurants, and on his Instagram feed he was photographed with rappers like P Diddy, Stefflon Don and the chef Salt Bae. In June 2022, while DJing a club set in Turkey, Koray met Gozde and the two hit it off. As a single man looking for love and finding a stunning single woman who liked him, they began as more than friends, and wanting to see if this long-distance love could last or be bettered, Koray invited Gozde to London. On Monday 10th of October, Gozde arrived at Heathrow to spend five days with Koray; he showed her the sights, they dined at fancy restaurants, she met his friend Mehmet who ran Mem & Laz, a brasserie in Islington, and even though they didn’t know each other well, he was affectionate, kind and gentle. It seemed like a bright and shining future was blooming for them both… …only a dark cloud was looming and death would blindfold her eyes. Having taken a 3-month break in Turkey, some of Koray’s friends said “he wasn’t himself”, and having returned to London in the weeks before Gozde’s visit, his gym buddy Parveen recalled “he’s always been a happy-go-lucky guy… but I could tell he was very stressed. He said there was a lot on his mind”. In his stylish flat on the salubrious Ebony Crescent in Enfield, although he excluded success, hidden in a drawer was later found several county court judgements owing to outstanding debts, he hadn’t paid his council tax, and he’d received a solicitor’s letter as his Audi sportscar was about to be repossessed. But this wasn’t his biggest issue, as when Parveen prodded him, “he said he’d said the wrong thing to the wrong person… but he never told me anything more. He always kept me out of harm’s way”. On Saturday the 24th of September 2022, two weeks before Gozde’s visit, Koray heard an odd rattling coming from his car. Parveen joked “are you sure your car hasn’t been bugged?”, he went quiet, and was paranoid about a white van he had seen several time before parked-up within sight of his flat. As Joseph Heller wrote in Catch 22 “just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”. And they were after him, as just one day before, a tracker had been fitted to the underside of his car; they watched where he went, who he saw and waited for a moment to strike. Why? His father believed they were jealous of his lifestyle and wanted to extort £150,000 from him, which he didn’t have. But the evidence “bore all the hallmarks of being linked to organised crime, possibly drug-related”. Crispin Aylett KC for the prosecution stated “It is unclear how he came to the attention of an Organised Crime Group… they believed he had something of value, money or drugs”. It was also rumoured that Koray was involved in a drug deal for the Hackney Bombers, which infuriated their Tottenham rivals. The crime-ridden borough of Hackney is dominated by two rival OCGs who sell narcotics across Britain through young and impressionable men and boys who mistakenly believe they’ll get rich living the gangster life but are trapped by threats and debts meaning death to themselves and their families. The Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Bombacilars had amassed 100s of millions of pounds via drugs trafficking, gun-running and money laundering (through so-called legitimate businesses like minicabs, barbers shops, kebab shops and American candy stores), but just mere morsels go to the grunts as the lion’s share goes to the unseen invisible bosses who live the high-life abroad and take very little risk. Given orders through a faceless chain of terrified middle-men, by the time these brainless underlings hear what it is that the boss has ordered them to do; they have no clue why they’re doing it or who to, they only know their little part in this evil game, as until they rise up the ranks, they’re disposable. The men who perpetrated this horrifying attack were mere bit players in the Tottenham Turks. They were; Tejean Kennedy, 33 of Cricklewood; Ali Kavak, 26 of Tottenham; Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 36 of Wood Green, Steffan Gordon, 35 of Northolt; Yigit Hurman, 19 of Muswell Hill, Ali Yildirim and Cem Orman who both fled to Turkey, and they mostly had minor offences which was why they were used to do the dirty work; Isay Stoyanov was a 44-year-old Bulgarian decorator and father-of-three with drink driving and possession of cannabis offences; Kyrie Mitchell-Peart, 32, a father-of-five who had convictions for burglary, possession and driving offences, as well as 18-year-old Dylan Weatherley who had two convictions for possession of an offensive weapon and having been runner in this county lines gang since his mid-teens, he had one conviction for possession of Class A drugs and an intent to supply. As with many boys, he frequently went missing from his home, his mother was concerned, and even though he’d returned back in January 2022, that October as his orders came down, he vanished again. In the early hours of Tuesday 11th of October 2022, the day after Gozde’s arrival, a second tracker was fitted on the underside of Koray’s Audi to replace the first, as they needed to know his whereabouts as the attack drew nearer. Yet even at that close hour, these underlings had no clue what was coming. Dylan Weatherley, Isay Stoyanov & Kyrie Mitchell-Peart only became involved that day, Thursday 13th of October 2022, with many recruited at lunchtime having met at a Turkish café at 79 Pretoria Road, not far from the newly-refurbish Tottenham Hotspur stadium. With so little time or information, given their orders from on high, they hastily pieced together a ‘sort of plan’ and everyone had a job to do. Dylan's job was to remove the car’s tracker after the attack. And that was it. No-one knew why they were doing this, except they’d been told do, and as far as we know, none of them had met the target. That day, after a tour of London’s sights, at 6:30pm, Koray & Gozde dined at Amazonico in Mayfair, the Latin American restaurant on Berkeley Square. Gozde called her mother to tell it was all going well, and after a glass of champagne, at 9:30pm they drove in the night, unaware they were being tracked. As the Audi drove 10 miles north, Ali Kavak's VW Polo tailed them up Camden, Kilburn and Barnet. They texted their progress to the boys in the white Fiat Doblo van parked near Koray’s flat, and they had Junior Kettle in a Ford Focus, in case Steffan Gordon who had the knife needed a fast getaway. At 11:20pm, as seen on the CCTV and the Ring doorbell’s of this desirable street, the Audi pulled onto Ebony Crescent and parked up on the drive; it had been a lovely day, they’d had a nice meal, and now they planned to head in and unwind with a glass of wine, maybe a kiss, as Koray turned off the engine… …it was then that the gang pounced. These eight masked men grabbed Koray, pulling him from the car, as Gozde froze in terror. He tried to run, but was caught. He fought back, but was outnumbered, leaving a bloodstained fragment of his shirt behind as he struggled. And as they frogmarched him to the van, a masked man with a knife ordered Gozde to ‘shut up and get out’, as she was kidnapped too. The vehicles fled, it took less than 30 seconds, Dylan Weatherley removed the tracker (as was his role) and when convicted, the judge stated “that was the most significant part of your role in these events”. Only everyone had a job to do, but who did what to whom will never be known. Gozde was terrified, she was bound, blindfolded and bundled onto the van’s floor beside Koray, as a man’s body weight forced her down. She didn’t know who they were, and only speaking Turkish, she didn’t understand the words they spat. As she shook and cried, Koray tried to reassure her; ‘be quiet my love’, only their kidnappers were far less compassionate, and as she was punched her twice in the face, possibly breaking her nose, that was the last thing she could recalled as everything went black. The convoy drove five miles south-east along the A111, A10 and onto White Hart Lane. With the front being a busy high street opposite Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, between two mid-Victorian houses at 4 and 6 White Hart Lane (correction: it was off Moselle Place), they entered a small industrial area at the back of the shops, and stopped. Hidden from view, at 11:35pm, having reversed the van to the backdoor, still blindfolded and bound, they dragged them both inside, and as Koray was moved to the front room, still semi-conscious, Gozde was dragged to a dirty toilet cubical at the back of a derelict shop, the door blocked by a large freezer. Neither of them would know it, especially Gozde who had only been in the UK for four days, but this was the Stadium Lounge, known as the Ezgi Turku Bar, a small Turkish/Cypriot club at 783 High Road in Tottenham, which was undergoing a substantial renovation; the windows were covered in drapes, the flats above were unoccupied, the shops on either side were closed for the night, the stadium was empty, and in what was to be a bar, surrounded by plastic sheeting was a table, a chair and a tool bag. Gozde never saw it, but she could feel and smell that she was sitting on a rancid toilet in a strange building in an unknown part of a city. Stripped of her coat, she shivered as the night dropped to just 8 degrees. Tied up and blindfolded, even if her phone hadn’t been taken, she couldn’t call anyone. If she screamed, she had no idea what would be done to her by the 10 to 15 men she heard shouting in the next room. And she had no idea why she was there, but as every so often one of them men would feed her scraps of chicken and potatoes, it became clear that she wasn’t their intended target. Through the bare tiled walls of the toilet, she heard the sounds of Koray’s panicked voice as he pleaded in English to his captors, she also heard his cries as he was beaten and his screams as he was tortured. She could do nothing but cry, as he was subjected to a prolonged and sadistic attack by baying thugs. We will never know if he told them what they wanted to hear, if he knew it at all, if they kept beating him (not knowing when or how to stop), or if the plan from their bosses had always been to kill him. First they stripped him of his clothes, as his torture had been designed to hurt and humiliate him. Tied to a chair flanked with plastic sheets, they bound his hands in front of his chest with a red cloth, then demanded answers to their bosses questions; if he lied, they hurt him; if he half-lied, they hurt him; if the truth wasn’t what they’d been told he’d say, they hurt him; and if he said nothing, they hurt him. For hours he was punched and kicked by a volley of fists and feet in the softest parts of his body. Linear bruises to his chest showed they beat him with a baseball bat, breaking 14 of his 24 ribs. In his torture, they repeatedly strangled him with a ligature allowing him just enough air to speak. And upon his bare feet, they stabbed the soles with a sharp knife and burned them with boiling water so they degloved. It’s uncertain – whoever his torturers were – if had done this before, if they were ordered to hurt him in certain ways, or if they revelled in sadism; as not only did he have wounds to his genitals, but also tearing to his rectum, and although we don’t know what was inserted in him, a mop handle was found. A post-mortem identified 94 injuries to his body; such as cuts, bruises, black eyes, strangulation marks, a fractured eye socket, bruising and tears to his genitals and rectum, and a hard blow to his head which resulted in brain damage. Dr Swift, the Pathologist stated “there was no doubt he was tortured to death… mercifully, he could not have survived these injuries by more than a few hours, no more than six at the most”, and having died in the early hours of Friday 14th, he was of no more use to the gang. As a popular and well-liked celebrity who always answered his phone, it wasn’t long before both Koray and Gozde were reported missing… but by then, the torturers were already destroying the evidence. Isay Stoyanov’s job was to clean up the torture room, to wipe away any tools, blood, fingerprints or DNA, but – like the others - lacking experience and with a plan cobbled together at the last minute, he had no idea what he was doing; he left behind a shirt, a dustpan, a kettle, a plastic cup, a can of Red Bull, two bottles of bleach, the mop handle, the tracking device from under the Audi, drops of Koray’s blood was found on the table, Isay’s (and Gozde’s) fingerprints were found on the fridge which blocked the toilet door, and his DNA was found inside of a blue latex glove, he had used to carelessly clean up. Early on the Saturday morning, roughly 31 hours after the kidnapping, Ali Kavak was seen clearing out the back seats of his VW Polo, which detectives later found CCTV footage of him tailing Koray’s Audi. At 6:43am, a camera caught him driving to an industrial unit on the nearby Triumph Trading Estate, at 1 Tariff Road in Tottenham. Inside, they moved the body into the boot of a stolen Renault Megane, in convoy with the white Fiat Doblo they drive 10 miles north-east to Loughton, and shy of the Oakwood Hill Industrial Estate, they dumped the body in woodland, just beside the road, wrapped in a carpet. It’s no surprise that at 11.55am, just a few hours later, the body was found by a dog walker, and with him tied up and tortured, although his ID was missing, he matched Koray’s missing person’s report. As for the other evidence; Koray’s phone was carelessly dumped, the Renault Megane was burnt-out on Walthamstow Wetlands with the van in Markfield Park yet even with false plates their VI Numbers were legible, the VW Polo was cleaned but still contained forensic evidence, and the embarrassingly-named Junior Kettle set fire to Koray’s clothes in a garden in Stamford Hill, but was seen on camera. They thought they had destroyed every piece of evidence which could link them to the murder… …all that remained was the one eye-witness to the kidnapping and torture – Gozde. By 4pm on Saturday 15th of October, with her body weak and exhausted having spent 41 hours trapped in a dank and cold toilet cubical, some of the masked men returned. Moving the fridge, they opened the door. Holding a sharp knife, they cut her binds. As it was cold, they gave her a large green jacket and a beanie hat. And in the VW Polo, they drove her 10 minutes up the road to an unknown spot. Having heard Koray’s death, she was trembling and terrified as to what would happen to her. Only she was no part of the plan, just an unfortunate bystander; they didn’t want her, they didn’t need her, and having told her not to call the police, they gave her £40 for a taxi and let her go. With no phone, no knowledge of where she was and a very basic grasp of English, she knew only one person in London. Mehmet, the owner of Mem & Laz Brasserie at 8 Theberton Street in Islington didn’t recognise Koray’s date having met her just days before, as with her eyes and nose bruised and bloody, “I thought she was a beggar, she looked very rough”, until he saw the fear in her eyes, and he called the Police. Taken to Kentish Town Police Station, she gave a statement, and although she was placed into special protection, not wanting to be here any longer, she fled the country five days later and never returned. The investigation was headed up by Detective Chief Inspector Matt Webb, who described it as “one of the most complex my team has dealt with”, and although (as the only eye-witness) they couldn’t compel her to recount her story in court as she was already traumatised enough, “we cracked this case through painstaking and lengthy analysis of CCTV, phone records” and evidence left at the scene. Across the year, although Ali Yildirim & Cem Orman had fled to Turkey, all of the gang were arrested; Tejean Kennedy, Ali Kavak, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, Steffan Gordon, Yigit Hurman, Junior Kettle, Isay Stoyanov, Kyrie Mitchell-Peart and Dylan Weatherley as well as others who had aided their crimes, and although some confessed to their small part, others claimed coercion or threats on their lives. It was all redundant, as Crispin Aylett KC for the prosecution stated “we do not know who killed Koray Alpergin nor do we know who participated in the violence”, but under Joint Venture, they could all be held accountable for his murder, “even if a number of them played different roles in the plan”. (End) Two trials were held at The Old Bailey in 2023 and 2024. Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC stated: ‘I’m satisfied none of you were central players in the plan, as the main players used others to do their dirty work to avoid detection”. Based on the evidence; Tejean Kennedy was sentenced 20 years, Ali Kavak to 13, Steffan Gordon to 8, Samuel Owusu-Opoku to 7, Kyrie Mitchell-Peart to 6 years and 4 months, Issay Stoyanov to 18 months, and with Dylan Weatherley convicted of a separate ‘conspiracy to murder’ charge for which he received life with a minimum term of 16 years, he received an additional five years for his part in this crime. Others like Junior Kettle walked free, as did the bosses of the Tottenham Turks, meaning that as of today, no-one has been convicted of Koray’s murder. Yet with the war still raging between the rival gangs, reprisals would happen. On the 30th of July 2023, 33-year-old Talip Guzel was shot dead in a Turkish social club on White Hart Lane, it was said “he was killed because the Tottenham Turks feared he’d spill the beans about Koray's killing if he’s arrested”. In January 2023, 27-year-old Ibrahim Gumus was shot and paralysed in a 'planned execution'. The two gunmen were Mehmet Er and Dylan Weatherley, in yet another attack he took part in because he was ordered to do, had no idea why, and did it because boys like him were totally disposable to his bosses. He ruined his life for the sake of a few thousand pounds and a little respect, but now he’s forgotten. In court, Koray’s cousin chastised his killers for trying to “escape the consequences of their heinous actions and tarnish Koray's character”, his ex-wife and children were left heartbroken and empty, his father suffered two strokes and a heart attack “at the pain of losing my son”, and since her kidnapping, Gozde has remained reclusive, stating “the ordeal has left a lasting trauma on me. I am scared of the dark… I cannot sleep alone… I often lose focus and suffer with flashbacks”. She came to London looking for love, but because of something Koray had either said or done, instead she had a date with death. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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