Dancer ‘murdered with Devil’s breath’
Couple accused of poisoning man they met via app
A COUPLE murdered a champion Irish dancer with a drug known as ‘Devil’s breath’ after meeting him via a gay dating app, a court heard.
Joel Osei, 25, and girlfriend Diana Cristea, 18, allegedly killed Adrian Murphy, 43, in a £1.2million riverside apartment in Battersea, south London.
They then used Mr Murphy’s name to try to buy more than £62,000 of diamonds from a New York jeweller, Croydon Crown Court heard. Osei and Cristea are also accused of poisoning a 40-year-old man on May 30 last year – two days before Mr Murphy’s death – before stealing £2,000 of his belongings. He was rushed to hospital and survived.
Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, said the drug scopolamine, which is often used by robbers and rapists in South America to incapacitate victims, had been given to both victims.
He said that while Osei was the only one of the pair who met the victims in person, having contacted them through the Grindr gay dating app, Cristea was ‘egging him on’ in the background and sold the stolen items.
The first victim invited Osei, who called himself ‘Remy’, to his flat in Walthamstow, northeast London, on May 30 but was disappointed to find the defendant ‘did not seem to be particularly interested in sex’, Mr Aylett said.
When the victim returned from the toilet he found Osei had poured him a glass of orange juice which he drank, having assumed it was from his fridge, the court heard.
Mr Aylett said: ‘[The victim] was to tell the police, “I remember standing up and my legs feeling like they had been injected with lead or something. I remember thinking I was going to pass out”.’
He was discovered by a neighbour, who called an ambulance.
The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, reported that items including his wallet, bank cards and two laptops, worth about £2,000, had been stolen.
On June 1, the pair targeted Mr Murphy, the court heard.
The seven- time Irish dancing champion, who had appeared on television in the UK, Australia and Ireland, met a man on Grindr and invited him back to the flat he was been staying in, Mr Aylett said.
The following day, the defendants tried to use his name to buy diamonds from US jeweller Padmavati Diamonds Company, he added.
Mr Murphy’s body was found in the flat on June 4. A Louis Vuitton bag, wallet and laptop worth a combined £2,000 had also been stolen.
Cristea is said to have taken a photo of Mr Murphy’s Louis Vuitton bag before advertising it for sale online for £300 along with five Dolce & Gabbana belts for £200.
The man who claimed to be named Remy and Mr Murphy’s unnamed visitor had used a phone ending in the same number, which police linked to Osei and Cristea, the court heard. Osei was later identified by the surviving victim as being Remy.
When police searched Mr Murphy’s flat, they found a Coca-Cola can and glass tumbler which contained traces of scopolamine.
Mr Aylett said: ‘The prosecution allege that the two defendants were a pair of ruthless grifters.’
Osei, of Seven Sisters, north London, denies murder, poisoning by administering a substance to endanger life, two counts of theft, and eight counts of fraud. Cristea, of Tottenham Hale, north London, denies murder, poisoning by administering a substance to endanger life, two counts of theft and seven counts of fraud.
The trial continues.
‘Like my legs were injected with lead’