A man stabbed in the heart in a fight between a fa

A man stabbed in the heart in a fight between a family of feuding Turks pulled the weapon from his chest to knife his attacker before he died, a court heard.

Victim Dogan Turkmen and his brother confronted alleged murderers Bullent and Bektas Ozcelik in their car when a sex before marriage row boiled over.

As Dogan, 26, leant through the car window, Bullent lashed out with a carving knife, the jury was told.

‘It was a very deep thrust through the window of that car straight into Dogan’s chest,’ said prosecutor Mr Victor Temple, QC.

‘Dogan fell back with the knife used by Bullent still in his chest.

‘Despite the serious nature of the wound, he managed to pull the knife out, reach over and stab Bullent in the thigh.

‘

Mr Turkmen collapsed shouting: ‘Mother, they have stabbed me’ and was beyond help.

Meanwhile, Bektas Ozcelik knifed the victim’s brother Orhan, 24, in the neck and he collapsed in an alleyway bleeding profusely.

The court heard all those involved were related by marriage but the simmering row had split the family.

Husseyin Ozcelik, who owned the Best Mangal (corr) restaurant in West Kensington was the uncle of Orhan’s wife.

But the row flared because the couple had lived together before the wedding, said Mr Temple.

‘Husseyin considered it had bought disgrace to the family.

The ill-feeling that caused continued for some time.

‘

The restuarant owner ignored the Turkmen brothers in the street and hurled abuse over the telephone when they called to ask him why he was upset.

Dogan and Orhan drove to the restaurant and a scuffle broke out between them and the two alleged killlers.

Bektas, 34, was 21-year-old Bullant’s uncle.

They both worked at the restuarant and were related to Husseyin.

Once the brothers left, Bullent and Bektas made a series of threats against them, it was alleged.

‘Bullent was saying words to the effect of: ”How dare they raid our shop.

I’ll kill them,” Mr Temple told the jury.

‘Bektas was saying words to the effect of: ”I will cut them, I will kill them.

”

Mr Temple said the pair took two carving knives from the restuarant and covered them with papers used to wrap kebabs.

That night they got into Bullent’s Mazda saloon car and drove off in search of the Turkmen brothers.

The two victims were also looking for them in a Honda car as family elders desperately tried to calm the situation with a flurry of telephone calls.

Eventually, the four clashed outside the home of another relative in Sydney Road, Hornsey.

‘At some point Dogan Turkmen went to the driver’s side of Bullent’s Mazda,’ said Mr Temple.

‘There, an altercation took place between the two men, Dogan sustainted a single stab wound to his chest and Bullent recieved stab wound to his thigh.

‘

Bektas then got out the of the car and knifed Orhan in the neck, the court heard.

Orhan was lucky to survive after he was found collapsed in the alleyway with
his blood spilling on to the pavement.

When the pair were arrested, they claimed they acted in self-defence when they were attacked with knives by the Turkmens.

But Mr Temple insisted the pair had not armed themselves.

‘The Crown accept the Turkmen brothers were not adverse to a confrontation,’ he said.

‘However, the crucial distinction is the fact that the brothers were not armed and had no idea that these two defendants were in possession of and prepared to use, to deadly effect, knives taken from the Best Mangal.

‘

The court heard the knife went through Mr Turkmen’s breast bone before penetrating his heart.

Bullent Ozcelik of Hewitt Road, Hornsey, and Bektas Ozcelik of Bartington Court, Colney Hatch Lane, Muswell Hill, both deny murder and wouding with intent in the early hours of April 9 last year.

The trial continues.

ends