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Fezvi Demir

Age: 35

Sex: male

Date: 17 Sep 1996

Place: BMT Kebab, High Street, Maldon

Fezvi Demir was killed at his fast food restaurant, BMT Kebab, in Maldon and buried in a concrete block.

He had been stabbed and possibly beaten about the head. He had not been seen since September 1996. He had been expected to visit a friend’s place in Colchester on 17 September 1996 but didn't show up.

Two people, a man and wife, were convicted of his manslaughter but later had their convictions quashed in June 2000 after it was found that the pathologist's evidence was unreliable.

Fezvi Demir had run BMT kebab in New Maldon.

His decomposed body was found by a builder in April 1997 who was breaking up a coffin shaped block of concrete in an outbuilding at the back of the restaurant. The builder said that he was knocked off his feet after he hit the concrete block with a lump hammer and the block exploded. He said that when he hit the block for a second time, the force of the explosion knocked the hammer into his leg and knocked him down. The builder said that he had been burning old joists and other rubbish at the rear of the property for several days and thought that the concrete block was just a pile of ready-mix concrete that had got wet.

He said that the premises were in a terrible state and that the electricity and gas had been cut off and that there was rotting meat in skips and cans everywhere. He also said that he saw maggots as big as alligators.

At the trial where the two people were convicted, it was heard that the wife had had a relationship with Fezvi Demir and that her husband had later killed him in an honour killing. At the time of the relationship the husband and wife were not married and had only started seeing each other after Fezvi Demir had ended the relationship with the woman. After Fezvi Demir had ended the relationship with the woman it was heard that she had become upset and had threatened him. It was also heard that the she had at the time still been besotted with Fezvi Demir.

It was also heard that the man had worked for Fezvi Demir but that he had been sacked by him after which he had threatened Fezvi Demir.

It was said that after the murder, the husband had stolen Fezvi Demir's BMW car and had sold it.

After Fezvi Demir had disappeared the husband had told friends of Fezvi Demir that he had gone back to Turkey because his mother had died.

It was heard that the husband had been seen driving Fezvi Demir's BMW car to Jewsons, the builder’s merchants, in Station Road, Maldon around the time Fezvi Demir disappeared, had bought ten bags of concrete there. He had also borrowed a shovel from a friend saying that he had wanted to clear a blocked drain. It was also heard that he had later approached a man who ran a company in Station Yard to find out if he could help him move a block of concrete from the kebab shop to where he had been living at the time in Norfolk Road with his wife. However, when the man had gone along to look at the block he had advised the husband that it would be better to break it up which the husband had declined to do.

At the trial it was heard that Fezvi Demir might have died from a stab wound but that his remains were too badly decomposed and burned for it to be possible to say how he had died. However, it was later heard at the appeal that the pathologist had failed to mention that Fezvi Demir also had a skull fracture which suggested that he might have died from a blow to the head.

It was also heard that the pathologist had been being monitored by the Home Office since 1996 and had been criticised by officials.

It was also heard that the same pathologist had been involved in a case in which a man was cleared of the murder of his 16-month old son in 1998 after it was said that bruises on the child’s neck could have been caused by the pathologists cack-handed examination of the child’s body. In the case it was heard that the pathologist had claimed that a bruise on the child’s neck, which she herself had probably caused, indicated that the child’s cause of death was strangulation.

As a result, the manslaughter convictions against the man and wife were quashed.

At the trial the husband had admitted:

  • Preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body between September 1996 and April 1997.
  • Concealment and disposal of a corpse to prevent lawful inquest between September 1996 and April 1997.
  • Using a false instrument, a cheque, in December 1996.
  • Stealing a BMW belonging to Fevsi Demir, obtaining property by deception, and selling the BMW for £700 in March 1997.
  • Doing acts tending or intending to pervert the course of justice between April and August 1997.

*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.