Chelmsford bar worker mutilated love rival in murder

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

A bar worker stabbed a love rival to death and mutilated his body before fleeing to Turkey, a court heard.

Prosecutors said Ceyhan Dinler – who is still on the run – stabbed 45-year-old Cumali Turhan in the neck at Barista bar, Chelmsford, on 19 November.

The tip of Mr Turhan’s tongue had been cut off and then thrown in a bin during the attack, jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court were told.

The allegations were made at the trial of Ciprian Ilie on Tuesday, who denies assisting Mr Turhan and preventing the lawful and decent burial of a dead body.

Christopher Paxton KC, prosecuting, said Mr Ilie helped to clean up the murder scene at the bar, put Mr Turhan’s body in a bin and brought Mr Dinler clean clothes.

The defendant confessed what happened to a worker at a homeless charity, who then called police but stressed he had “acted under duress”, Mr Paxton said.

Specialist officers attended the bar in Duke Street and found Mr Turhan’s “severed penis and severed tip of his tongue” in a separate bin inside, jurors were told.

Police officers searched 80 tonnes of landfill looking for Mr Turhan’s body.

“Almost two months after his murder, Mr Turhan’s naked and mutilated body was found on 11 January this year,” Mr Paxton said.

He earlier told the court there had been an “ongoing and simmering issue” between Mr Dinler and Mr Turhan, who was said to have “had a relationship with Mr Dinler’s girlfriend”.

The prosecutor said: “Dinler was angered by what happened some months before.”

Having allegedly murdered Mr Turhan in the early hours, Mr Dinler worked his shift on 19 November.

“While the bar has been cleaned by Mr Ilie, there were broken items and bloodied tissues and cloths,” Mr Paxton said.

He added Mr Turhan was “well-known in the Turkish community” and “people began to worry when they couldn’t get hold” of him.

Mr Paxton said that after finishing his shift, Dinler went to London Stansted Airport and took a flight to Istanbul.

“He was fleeing the UK having murdered Mr Turhan,” he said, adding he travelled with no luggage.

“He had fled this country having unlawfully killed Mr Turhan and he has not returned,” Mr Paxton told jurors.

The trial continues.