‘Killer shot Talip Guzel dead and left the gun with his girlfriend of five days while he fled to Pakistan’

A gunman left the murder weapon with his girlfriend of five days and fled to Pakistan after shooting a man dead at a Turkish coffee shop, a court heard.

Ali Danish Syed, 29, has never been caught but his Bulgarian lover Stanislava Kukusheva, 36, is on trial for perverting the course of justice after her DNA was found on the gun.

Jan Mercan, 24, who allegedly drove Syed to the murder scene in a rented van is in the dock with her at the Old Bailey on a murder charge.

Victim Talip Guzel, 33, was killed as sat in the Turkish coffee shop in the shadow of Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium on July 30, 2023.

Syed got out the van then cycled to the shop wearing a balaclava, shooting Guzel twice in the chest and left arm with the Sig Saur P75 self-loading handgun just after 11pm, it is claimed.

Guzel collapsed immediately and died at the scene.

Syed gave the gun to Mercan and travelled to Edinburgh, later catching a flight to Pakistan via Doha, the jury has heard.

Prosecutor Mukul Chawla KC, said Mecan then took the gun to Compton Crescent in Tottenham where Kukusheva was living.

‘The murder weapon must have been transported by Mercan to Compton Crescent,’ he told the jury.

‘There, it was removed by Syed and placed in the black bag and then immediately deposited with Kukusheva.’

He said the motive for killing was not known but it ‘bears all the hallmarks of a carefully planned attack.’

‘Guzel was sitting at a table on his own. CCTV in and around the social club reveals that, at 23:19 hrs, Syed arrived outside White Hart Lane on a red bicycle.

‘He parked his bicycle and walked into the social club where Mr Guzel was sitting.’

Mr Chawla said that Syed, ‘masked with a balaclava’, had scouted out for Guzel inside the coffee shop before ‘waving the handgun no doubt to deter anyone from approaching him.’

He said: ‘Two CCTV cameras inside the social club show the presence of Guzel, the other patrons and an employee. They show the gunman entering and shooting Guzel before leaving.’

Mr Chawla read out text messages allegedly sent between the alleged assassin and his girlfriend a day before the murder.

In one Syed allegedly said: ‘Someone f-cked around try steal money. Had to go get that shit. Uno how it is babe problem is problem’.

His girlfriend allegedly said the same night before the murder: ‘Listen if u not coming tonight just let me know pls cos I don’t wanna look as a stupid to wait someone.’

Police went to the home of a woman called Elif Senpalit who in Larmans Road Enfield after her BMW was used in a road rage incident on 14 August 2023.

In the rear nearside passenger footwell was a yellow Selfridges wine carrier bag containing other bags and a balaclava wrapped around the handgun, together with a magazine and seven rounds of ammunition.

Kukusheva’s DNA was found on one of the bags and on the handle of the gun.

She was to tell police she met Syed on Tinder a few days before but hardly new him and they had sex only once.

Kukusheva said she deleted messages on her phone from Syed because they had exchanged sexual pictures.

But CCTV from outside her house showed her waiting to hand over the bag and the gun, it is claimed.

And when police examined her phone messages they could find no sexual pictures.

Kukusheva also sent two payments of £200 to Syed when he was in Pakistan, it is claimed.

Kukusheva, of Walthamstow, east London, denies possession of a firearm, perverting the course of justice, and assisting an offender.

Mercan, of Enfield, north London, denies one count of murder and possession of a firearm.

The trial continues.