Reject accused killer’s lies, jury told

The man accused of brutally murdering his boss Hasan Dastan around 27 years ago tried to cover up his actions through false, implausible and inconsistent tales, a Sydney jury has heard.

Giving closing submissions in Kubilay Kilincer’s trial on Thursday, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield said jurors should reject the accused’s lies.

Kilincer, now 60, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Dastan in his western Sydney Esy Auto Dismantlers business on the morning of December 11, 1995. His body was found bashed underneath a vehicle in a pool of blood within the Blacktown premises.

Stealing money from the till and on the verge of being fired, Kilincer argued with his employer and killed him, the Crown alleges.

Mr Hatfield said Kilincer had repeatedly lied about $1000 he had taken from Mr Dastan and then lost. The alleged falsities included who he had paid or given the money to afterwards, and when he had repaid it to his boss if at all.

“This was an issue between (Mr Dastan) and the accused … a reason for him to have a complication with the deceased on money, a reason to fight with him, a reason for the accused to harm him,” the barrister said.

A bloodied revenge note found at the crime scene contained phrasing similar to that used by Kilincer when pointing police at an irate customer who allegedly threatened Mr Dastan after buying a Toyota engine from him.

“The note appears to have been left as a false trail,” the prosecutor said.

The customer was in Grafton in the state’s Northern Rivers region at the time of the tragedy.

Kilincer had also given inconsistent stories about his movements to cover up his crime, Mr Hatfield told the jury.

Giving evidence in the NSW Supreme Court, Kilincer said his boss had been angry with him when he arrived late to work on December 11 but had quickly calmed down.

In a prior interview with Detective John Mastrobattista, however, the mechanic said Mr Dastan was drunk the morning he was killed and had lost $3000 gambling at a Turkish cafe.

“You might think, members of the jury, it’s patently false, it’s patently false with what he said to Detective Mastrobattista … He completely contradicts himself in his evidence before you, sprinkling some Turkish words in there to give it some verisimilitude,” said Mr Hatfield.

Not only did these “patent falsehoods” reflect badly on Kilincer’s credibility, they also showed he felt guilt and was attempting to divert attention from his actions, jurors heard.

The prosecutor also took aim at the accused’s wife Gulser Kilincer, saying she had lied about where her husband had gone the morning of the murder.

This included Kilincer claiming he left his boss, who he says was then alive, early enough to go to the Department of Social Security and then to buy groceries before arriving back at the wreckers to find media and police there.

Mrs Kilincer told the jury she had seen her partner return home with a bag of bread.

“That detail that he came back home carrying some bread was false evidence given by both of them which they plainly, you might think, came up with falsely to assist the accused with his case,” Mr Hatfield said.

Other witnesses described Esy Auto Dismantlers’ large roller doors being shuttered early on December 11 – which was unusual – and a worker identified as the accused blocking two people from entering around 8 or 9am that day.

The deceased’s wife, Sultan Dastan said she had called Esy Auto Dismantlers that morning. Kilincer picked up the phone, saying that her husband was not in but that he would call back.

He never did.

“She said usually Kubilay would say ‘have a good day, aunty’ but this time he said ‘bye bye’ in a very strange voice and the call terminated,” Mr Hatfield told the jury.

A metal pipe was shoved six centimetres into Mr Dastan’s mouth and his severe head injuries were consistent with an attack using a bloodied sledgehammer that lay nearby.

The trial continues.