Man 'killed over property deal'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/london/8090986.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A property developer had a man killed as he would not leave a £2m building he was trying to sell, a court has heard.

Thanos Papalexis was worried the deal would collapse and needed money for another development, a jury was told.

The body of caretaker Charalambos Christodoulides, 55, was found in 2000 in the warehouse complex he resided at in Kensal Rise, north-west London.

Mr Papalexis, 36, of Palm Beach, Florida, and two of his employees have denied murder at the Old Bailey.

It appears that the victim was condemned to die for no better reason than he was not prepared to leave his home Jonathan Laidlaw QC

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said Mr Christodoulides had been tied to a chair, tortured and strangled.

Mr Laidlaw added: "It appears that the victim was condemned to die for no better reason than he was not prepared to leave his home."

The other defendants, Kosova Albanian asylum seekers Ylli Xhelo, 36, of no fixed address, and Robert Baxhija, 29, of Palmers Green, north London, used to work for Mr Papalexis and were his "henchmen" in the murder, the court heard.

Financial trouble

Mr Laidlaw said the defendant had got into financial trouble with the purchase of the warehouse and a residential development he had begun in Holloway, north London, in 1999.

He tried to sell the warehouse, even though he had not completed the purchase, to raise money to pay creditors, the prosecutor said.

But, Mr Laidlaw suggested, Mr Christodoulides might have stood in the way by occupying his flat in the building.

Mr Christodoulides was believed to have been alive in the early hours of 10 March, 2000.

Later that day, Mr Papalexis exchanged contracts for the sale to give him £300,000 profit.

'Confession to prostitute'

A few days later, Mr Christodoulides's family reported him missing and police searched the extensive premises but found no body.

On 16 March, the completion of the sale fell through and receivers were called into Mr Papalexis's Holloway site.

The following week Mr Papalexis flew out of Britain, the jury was told.

Police decided to make a more detailed search of the warehouse on 25 March, discovering the body in the inspection pit, the court heard.

Mr Laidlaw said mobile phone calls, fingerprints and DNA from cigarette butts put all three defendants in the warehouse at the time the victim was killed.

He told the jury that Mr Papalexis confessed to the murder to a prostitute in the US, and she contacted the authorities when she heard about his arrest and extradition last year.

The case continues.