Sadistic killer Ali Koc

Hornsey man jailed for 35 years for ‘brutal’ murders in Haringey woods and parks

by Court Reporter Friday, May 18, 2012
1:33 PM

The Turkish killer who murdered two elderly men and attacked another five strangers with a wooden “caveman’s club” while stalking parks and woods near his Hornsey home was jailed for at least 35 years today.

Victim Victor Parsons in hospital

Ali Koc was told his “brutal campaign of violence” was “carried out for the sake of showing you could intimidate and hurt other human beings” as he received two life sentences at Woolwich Crown Court this morning.

Koc, 30, from Lightfoot Road, Hornsey, had denied two murders and five counts of attempted GBH between January 5 and 31 last year, but was convicted on all counts earlier this week. His family members wept hysterically as stone-faced Koc was sentenced.

Judge Mr Justice David Calvert-Smith told him the attacks had revealed the “best and worst” of London’s citizens.

He beat his male victims with lumps of wood, before head-butting, punching and kicking them in a series of attacks in Alexandra Park, Priory Park, Queen’s Wood and Downhills Park.

Two of his victims - Victor Parsons, 67, and Keith Needell, 84 - suffered such severe injuries they later died in hospital.

Mr Parsons was the first to be attacked, in Alexandra Park on January 5. He died seven weeks later. Mr Needell was captured on CCTV leaving Highgate Tube station 30 minutes before being attacked in Queen’s Wood on January 31, on his way home to Wood Vale. He suffered a fractured skull and died six months later from his injuries and pneumonia.

Police fear cannabis user Koc, who has a long criminal record, lived with his parents and never had a job, may have attacked scores of others and appealed for any other victims to come forward.

The court had earlier heard how he had stalked green spaces near his home while wearing a pair of gloves emblazoned with a skull and cross bones. The gloves would later help identify him after he was caught on CCTV wearing them. His surviving victims also picked him out of ID parades and DNA and blood samples were found on his trainers.

The court heard none of the victims were robbed - even though Mr Parsons had £750 cash in his back pocket - or had items demanded from them, and there was no sexual motivation behind the attacks.

It was revealed that Koc has already served time for knife possession in 2008 and burglary in 2007, and has 18 previous convictions in all.