Man was shot dead and buried in shallow grave in Epping Forest, court hears

A man was shot four times, trussed up and buried in a shallow grave deep in an ancient forest, a court has heard.

Hidir Aksakal, 47, also known as Boxer Cetin, was allegedly murdered at a house in Tottenham, east London, in the early hours of August 17 last year and then dumped in a boggy area of Epping Forest known as Hollow Pond.

Three weeks later, a walker stumbled across his body and investigations led back to two fellow Turkish men, Yilmaz Coskun and Remzi Akguc, jurors were told.

Opening their murder trial, prosecutor Ed Brown QC said: "The location was chosen as it was intended that his body would not be found - time would take its course on the body so that it would not reveal what had truly happened and, more importantly, who was responsible for his disappearance and death.

"In fact, the nature of his wounds, once his body was found by chance just three weeks later, showed that he had been shot dead.

"He had been shot not just once but four times - the likely last bullet was from the gun while it was held inside his mouth. This shot literally blew a hole in the top of his skull. Of course, he stood no chance at all."

A walker was off the beaten track when he came across a "foul-smelling sack" containing the body in a waterlogged area, Mr Brown said. A shovel had been discarded nearby.

Police traced the victim's last known movements to Coskun's then home in Templeton Road, Tottenham.

He was last seen by a minicab driver who had taken the victim and his alleged killers to the house where the murder took place, the court heard.

Earlier that night, they had been in a fish restaurant when an argument broke out between Mr Aksakal and Coskun over the defendant's girlfriend, the court heard.

After the murder, Akguc allegedly bought a burial kit which included a shovel, tarpaulin, rope, trolley and gloves.

Akguc 41, of Margery Street, west London, and Coskun, 36, of no fixed address, deny murder and preventing the lawful burial of a body.

Following the discovery of the body, police searched Coskun's home in Tottenham, the court heard.

The murder weapon, stained with the victim's blood on it, was stashed in a sock amid foliage behind the building, jurors were told.

And despite determined efforts to clean and redecorate the property, blood from the victim as well as the two defendants was identified with the use of Luminol, Mr Brown said.

The evidence suggested that Mr Aksakal had been killed in the living room and then his body stored in an upstairs bedroom for 22 hours before it was bundled into the back of a car and buried in the dead of night, the court heard.