A millionaire property developer and his henchmen tortured and killed a caretaker who stood in the way of a business deal, a court heard today.
Thanos Papalexis, the 36-year-old British-born son of a Greek shipping magnate, was hoping to sell a £2 million disused warehouse in Kilburn, north London, in order to prop up his failing property development business, the Old Bailey heard.
The only thing standing in the way of Papalexis was Charalambos Christodoulides, 55, a “quiet, simple man” who lived in a flat in the building, jurors were told.
“It appears that the victim was condemned to die for no better reason than he was not prepared to leave his home,” said Jonathan Laidlaw, for the prosecution.
“It is likely that when told he had to move out, he would have refused to do so.”
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Mr Christodoulides went missing on the day contacts were exchanged for the property. His body was found two weeks later in March 2000, in a nearby garage inspection pit.
Mr Laidlaw told the court that he had been tied to a chair, tortured and strangled. He said: “The murder was brutal. It was a terrible way for an entirely innocent man to lose his life.”
Mobile phone calls, fingerprints and DNA on cigarette butts allegedly placed Mr Papalexis and failed Albanian asylum seekers Ylli Xhelo, 36, and Robert Baxhija, 29, in the warehouse at the time of the murder. All three defendants deny murder.
The court heard that although Mr Papalexis was from a wealthy background, he was in a “perilous” financial position. His first major redevelopment project was behind schedule and he had fallen into debt. “Papalexis was become increasingly desperate for money,” said Mr Laidlaw.
When a buyer offered Mr Papalexis £2.3 million for the warehouse, giving him a £300,000 profit, the court heard that he jumped at the chance.
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Mr Christodoulides, whose brother-in-law Michael Lanitis had owned the building, was believed to have been alive in the early hours of Friday March 10.
Later that day, Papalexis exchanged contracts for the sale with his new buyer to give him the £300,000 profit.
A few days later, Mr Christodoulides’s family reported him missing and police searched the extensive premises. They found blood staining and his glasses but no body.
On March 16, the completion of the sale fell through and receivers were called into Papalexis’s other site in Holloway.
He had been forced to return the warehouse keys to Mr Lanitis, and the following week Papalexis flew out of Britain.
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Police decided to make a more detailed search of the warehouse on March 25, discovering the body in the inspection pit, the court heard.
Mr Baxhija and Mr Xhelo were deported from the UK before they were linked to the murder. They later returned however, unaware that they were suspects. Mr Papalexis flew to America where, Mr Laidlaw told the jury, he had confessed to the murder to a prostitute.
Mr Laidlaw added: “After the murder, Papalexis went to America. We do not suggest he fled there never to return.
“There were occasions when he came back for visits - but he was obviously confident that the clear-up had been successful and that the police investigation had ended without identification of the perpetrators.
“But, in America, the defendant was unwise enough to confess to the murder.”
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The trial continues.