A violent bully has been jailed for 12 years for a five-week campaign of abuse that culminated in the death of a vulnerable crack cocaine addict. Bamidele Fawehinmi, 33, from Haringey, north London, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday after pleading guilty to manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm part-way through a retrial in March. An earlier jury had cleared him of murder and failed to reach a verdict on a charge of servitude.
The conditions inside the ‘cuckoo’ flat
Fawehinmi, a drug dealer who ran a class A drug line, preyed on Dimitrios Tsavdaris, a 55-year-old former chef known as Jimmy, who was a frail crack cocaine addict weighing just over eight stone. The court heard that in the autumn of 2023, Mr Tsavdaris was allegedly forced to work long hours for Fawehinmi, driving him around and delivering drugs. He was living in squalid conditions at Fawehinmi’s home in Wickford, Essex, where he was forced to sleep on a mattress in a garage beside American pitbull cross-breed dogs. At one point, 14 puppies were seen in the garden, and Mr Tsavdaris was tasked with looking after the animals.
On 21 January 2024, Fawehinmi transported the seriously injured Mr Tsavdaris in a hire car from Wickford to a flat in Lansdowne Drive, Hackney – a so-called “cuckoo” flat, a term used for properties taken over by drug dealers from vulnerable individuals for the purposes of drug dealing. The victim was left locked inside the flat. Police were alerted to his death after Fawehinmi’s father “did the right thing” and reported the discovery of the body. When officers arrived on 29 January 2024, they found Mr Tsavdaris had been dead or dying for several days without any means to summon help.
A post-mortem examination revealed multiple fractures to his ribs, face and breastbone, along with old and new bleeding on the brain and internal injuries. The court heard he had endured at least three separate violent assaults in the five weeks leading up to his death, resulting in fractures to his ribs, chest, and head, as well as brain injuries. He had previously been found outside a school in November 2023, fearful for his safety after an assault, but discharged himself from hospital.
Fawehinmi attempted to flee to Nigeria but was arrested on 30 January after his hire car triggered a number plate camera on the M11. He had two suitcases filled with clothing and claimed he was travelling to see his grandmother. Mr Tsavdaris’s blood was later found at the Wickford property and in the Kia car used to move him. Detectives collected hundreds of statements and analysed hundreds of hours of CCTV footage as part of the investigation.
Victim impact statements
In a poignant victim impact statement, Mr Tsavdaris’s former wife, Andrea Lavor, described the man she knew before addiction took hold. “Dimitrios was the love of my life and the father of our son, Antonio,” she said. “He was much more than the vulnerable man described in court. He came from a good family, was proud of his Pontic Greek heritage, loved music, loved life, and was a caring, kind and loving father.” She added: “The loss of Dimitrios has devastated our family. Nothing can replace the father my son has lost, and every day we live with the pain of knowing he will never be able to share future milestones with him.”
Mr Tsavdaris’s son, Antonio, who was about to start a “dream job” as a head chef, expressed his anguish: “How can someone treat another human being like this? It was such a horrible way for him to die. The man who killed him has shown no remorse.”
In sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC noted that Fawehinmi had treated his victim like his “lackey” and kept him in “squalid” conditions. The judge also remarked on the “deeply shocking” impact of class A drug addiction. Fawehinmi had previous convictions for criminal damage and common assault in 2015 and admitted selling crack cocaine.
Detective Superintendent Kelly Allen, from the Metropolitan Police, condemned Fawehinmi’s actions. “I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Dimitrios must have gone through in the final weeks of his life, enslaved by Bamidele Fawehinmi and living in fear for his life,” she stated. “Fawehinmi is a violent bully who preyed on vulnerable people to exploit them for his own gain.”
