Man jailed in 'mutilated body' landfill trial

Cumali Turhan's daughter was two years old when he died

A man has been jailed for seven years after assisting in the murder of a father-of-two in a city bar two months before his stabbed and mutilated body was found in a landfill.

Ciprian Ilie, 45, of no fixed abode, claimed he had been forced at knife point to clean up the killing of Cumali Turhan at the Barista bar in Chelmsford in November last year.

However, he was found guilty last week of the assisting offence and preventing the decent burial of a body.

During sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court, judge Chris Morgan said: "There is, in my judgement, little evidence of remorse."

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions which some people may find upsetting.

Ciprian Ilie was found guilty of helping clearing up the death of Cumali Turhan at the Barista bar in Chelmsford in November last year

During the three-week trial the jury heard the victim had been killed as a result of an affair with Ceyhan Dinler's girlfriend.

Ilie, a homeless Romanian national, said he did odd jobs for Mr Dinler, who he said had helped him and his partner find accommodation when they had been living in a tent.

He said he was called to Barista, on Duke Street, at 02:00 GMT on 19 November and was "so shocked" at the amount of blood he saw.

He told the jury he considered running, but Mr Dinler held him at knifepoint and said: "If you don't help me, I'll kill you and [your girlfriend]."

Police found Mr Turhan's "severed penis and severed tip of his tongue" in a bin inside the bar.

During sentencing, prosecuting counsel Christopher Paxton KC read victim impact statements from Mr Turhan's relatives.

One from his niece in Turkey read: "We hadn't seen each other in 12 years; we were going to see each other this year.

"I would give my best to hug him one last time."

Mr Turhan would video chat with his niece every day until one day she was told her uncle was dead.

She said she did not believe it but the statement read: "You learn the news of his death from the media and the press - it is so bad."

Police said Cumali Turhan had been in Duke Street, Chelmsford, before he went missing

The court heard how Mr Turhan's mother died when he was six years old and his sister had written an email to Essex Police which was read out in court.

"I was not his sister; I was his mother," she wrote.

"He was my son... I missed my son's burial... I am unable to say anything more."

The mother of the murdered man's child, Brittany Davies gave a statement which said: "Our daughter was only two when her daddy was cruelly taken."

Ms Davies said his daughter was the "love of his life".

She said she had to leave Chelmsford because she had been haunted by the "psychological pain" of how Mr Turhan "was not just murdered, but he was thrown away... thrown in the bin and discarded like he didn't matter".

"I struggled to accept that another human could do this to someone," she said.

"He mattered and he will never be forgotten.

"This is a man who caused me hurt and pain while he was alive, he was also a man I loved with all of my heart."

Cumali Turhan's body was found at a landfill site almost two months after his death

Defence counsel Michael Edmonds said: "There was nothing Ilie could have done to save the life of Cumali - he was, by that point, dead.

"One of the questions that will run through Mr Ilie's mind - what if he hadn't answered the phone at two in the morning. What if he was too drunk?

"Your honour has to sentence a 45-year-old homeless man, precisely the person who Mr Dinler knew would get up at 02:00 and clean up a bar."

Ilie had been promised money to come and clean up the bar, but "he knew nothing of what he was about to be involved in," said Mr Edmonds.

In his closing speech, Judge Morgan said: "This will be your first custodial sentence — there has to be a custodial sentence."

He said once the sentence was over Ilie was "likely to be held in a detention facility pending your deportation back to your home country".

Ilie who has been in the UK since 2012, stood in the dock with his head down.

Judge Morgan said the family and friends "were left in a high state of anxiety and distress knowing Cumali had been killed but not knowing the circumstances other than mutilation".

The judge said Dinler's actions were in "revenge for the sexual infidelity between his partner and Cumali Turhan. Dinler lured him to a bar late at night and there Cumali was killed by a single stab wound in the neck".

There were then "further acts of humiliation continued by mutilation of his body".

"You helped him, not in the murder, but cleaning up the murder scene," he said.

"There is evidence that you must have placed the penis and the tip of the tongue in the bin."

Police are still looking for Ceyhan Dinler in connection with Mr Turhan's death

Essex Police said Mr Dinler remained at large having fled the country just hours after the murder.