A 34-year-old has been convicted of killing a man and setting fire to his body to avoid paying a drugs debt, police have said.
Raphael Kokkinos from Streatham in south London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and perverting the course of justice before the start of a trial on 13 April.
Two others – Aaron Williams, 29, from Thornton Heath, and Sophia Kokkinos, 70, from Clapham – were found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a trial at the Old Bailey on 22 June.
All three will be sentenced at the same court on a date yet to be confirmed, the Metropolitan Police said.
Jean Loike Guei was killed as a result of a dispute over drugs which had been stolen from Kokkinos’ home in August 2020.
Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley, who led the investigation, said: “Following the burglary, Kokkinos owed Guei a significant amount of money which he had no way to pay back.
“When Guei arrived at Kokkinos’s address, he was attacked and killed.
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“Kokkinos then persuaded and enrolled the help of his friend, Williams, and his mother to assist in covering up the crime in the hope they wouldn’t be caught.”
Guei’s body was discovered after a member of the public spotted a fire in bushes on the side of a road near Mitcham Common in the early hours of 17 September 2020.
A post-mortem examination concluded he had been assaulted and killed prior to his body being moved and set on fire.
A Metropolitan Police investigation found that in the days following the burglary, there were frequent phone calls between Kokkinos and Guei.
CCTV seized by officers showed that on 15 September Guei made his way to Kokkinos’s flat.
Officers believe that Guei was killed almost immediately by Kokkinos.
Williams arrived at the flat later that day and played a pivotal role in getting rid of Guei’s car by taking it to a mechanic on the pretence of selling it, police said.
CCTV also showed a convoy of cars travelling to Mitcham Common in the early hours of 17 September. One of the vehicles appeared to have a bulky and irregular shaped object in the boot – officers believe this was the body of Guei.
The car used to transport the body was also sold on by Williams, police said, and had been thoroughly cleaned, as had Kokkinos’s flat.
However, crime scene experts discovered two small bloodstains in the kitchen area which were later proven to be a match to Guei.
