A vulnerable former chef died in a “cuckoo” house after being repeatedly beaten, kept in slavery and forced to sleep beside dogs, a court has heard.
The body of 55-year-old Dimitrios Tsavdaris was found in a foetal position in a flat in Hackney, east London, after he succumbed to weeks of violent attacks, the Old Bailey was told. He had allegedly been taken there from the home of Bamidele Fawehinmi in Wickford, Essex, where he slept on a mattress in a garage beside dogs.
Weighing just over eight stone, the victim was a frail “vulnerable person” who may have been dead or dying for several days before his body was found last January 29, prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said. He had suffered multiple fractures to his ribs, face and breastbone as well as old and new bleeding on the brain and internal injuries, jurors were told.
Fawehinmi, 31, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of Mr Tsavdaris’s murder and causing him grievous bodily harm. The defendant is also charged with keeping him and another man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in servitude.
Ms Carberry told jurors the defendant was a drug dealer who “preys on vulnerable men” who had struggled with drug addiction. She said: “He beat them, he kept them in fear so they would do his bidding, he used them to help prepare, package and supply drugs and to drive him around. They lived in squalor at addresses associated with him. In return he fed their drug habit. The deceased, Dimitrios Tsavdaris was one such man. He was not the only one.”
The victim, known as Jimmy, had worked as a chef and taxi driver before his world “unravelled” following the sudden death of his brother some years ago, jurors were told. The flat where he died had been “cuckooed” by the defendant, who took it over from another man and used it for drug dealing, it was alleged.
The victim had been attacked there as well as at the defendant’s home some 30 miles away in Essex, the court heard. Ms Carberry told jurors: “There Dimitrios slept on a mattress on the floor of the garage where the defendant kept his dogs.”
He was already badly injured when he was transported by the defendant to Hackney a week before his body was found, she said. Ms Carberry said: “The police were alerted to Dimitrios’ death by this defendant’s own father who, upon learning from his son that there was a dead body in a flat associated with him, did the right thing and reported it to the police.
“Meanwhile his son, knowing he had killed a man, tried to flee the country via Heathrow airport to Lagos in Nigeria.”
Jurors were told that the defendant’s exploitation and abuse of vulnerable men amounted to “modern slavery” and dated back several years. The court was told that a second alleged modern slavery victim would give evidence in the trial about how he was physically and mentally abused.
Fawehinmi has denied the charges against him and the Old Bailey trial continues.
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