WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Ciprian Ilie was today found guilty of assisting an offender and preventing the lawful and decent burial of Cumali Turham, whose body was discovered in a landfill site
A man has been found guilty of assisting the murder of a man who was found dead at a landfill site almost two months after his body was dumped in a bin.
Ciprian Ilie, 44, was today found guilty of assisting an offender and preventing the lawful and decent burial of Cumali Turham. The 46-year-old victim was the subject of a 47-day search at the Enovert waste site in Stanway, near Colchester in Essex.
Cumali had not been seen after entering the Barista bar in Chemlsford on November 19 last year and his body was found on January 11, 2022 in a landfill site. Essex Police are still searching for 38-year-old Ceyhan Dinler who it was alleged stabbed Cumali in the neck and left the UK from Stansted Airport on the day Cumali was reported missing.
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A two-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that Ilie, of no fixed address, was arrested at a homeless shelter. During interview, Ilie told officers he received a call in the early hours of November 19 and was told to go Barista bar in Duke Street in Chelmsford. He said that he went into the premises and was faced with blood on the floor and a body in the corner.
Ilie went on to say that he was threatened with a knife and forced to help pick up the body and put it in a bin at the back of the bar. He told officers that both he and his girlfriend had been threatened, and so did what he was ordered to do. The jury heard that Cumali had been drinking in the evening before his disappearance with Ceyhan Dinler at The Globe in Rainsford Road, Chelmsford.
CCTV footage showed them leaving the pub and walking to Barista in nearby Duke Street. Cumali was not seen alive again. An inquest in September heard he had suffered multiple stab wounds before his death, and two body parts – the tip of his tongue and severed penis – were found at the scene in Duke Street.
The coroner, Michelle Brown, stated the provisional cause of death as consistent with stab wounds to the neck. Ilie, a homeless Romanian national who did odd jobs for Mr Dinler, told the jury: “I did not expect what I saw. Everywhere [Mr Dinler] was covered in blood. Initially, I thought it was wine; it didn’t really cross my mind it could be blood – so much blood.”
He added that after seeing more blood on the floor and walls, he noticed “a foot under the table” attached to Mr Turhan’s dead body, the BBC reported. He said he was “so shocked” and considered running away but claimed Mr Dinler held him at knifepoint and said: “If you don’t help me, I’ll kill you and [your girlfriend].”
The victim’s “severed penis and severed tip of his tongue” were found inside the bar, while his body was discovered in the landfill site nearly eight weeks after his murder. Detective Chief Inspector Louise Metcalfe said: “This case is extremely complex and has involved teams of officers and staff working in very difficult circumstances to uncover what happened to a father-of-two.
“What started as a missing person report escalated quickly into a murder investigation when it became apparent to us that Cumali Turhan had come to serious harm. At the heart of this case is a father. Cumali has a young daughter who must now grow up without him and grieving parents in Turkey.
“We were determined to do everything we could to find Cumali and secure justice for his family.” The search at the landfill site saw officers scour an area the side of a football piece which was five metres deep. The final search is believed to be the first time an active police search of a landfill site in the UK has recovered a body, said Essex Police.
Sergeant Simon Gray, who led the search team, said: “The officers worked incredibly hard on this operation. It was never lost on us that we wanted to find Cumali and bring him home to his family. It was mentally and physically challenging for all those involved, and we were acutely aware that we would not be able to continue the search indefinitely.
“I think the fact that this is the first time a body has been located during an active search on a landfill site is testament to how difficult this search was. And I would like to acknowledge and thank the site owners for their patience and support.”
Ilie is due to be sentenced on Tuesday.