The killer tricked his 70-year-old mother into helping dispose of the victim’s body by setting it on fire in bushes

Raphael Kokkinos, 34, admitted killing Loeike Gueis, 23, at his home in Streatham and perverted the course of justice by disposing of his body with his pensioner mother

A killer faces jail with his 70-year-old mother after she was convicted of helping him dispose of his victim’s 6ft 7 body.

The burning body of Loeike Guei was discovered around 6am on September 17, 2020 by a cyclist passing Mitcham Common in south London.

Raphael Kokkinos, 34, admitted killing Mr Guei, 23, at his home in Streatham and perverting the course of justice by disposing of his body.

Kokkinos’ mother Sophia, 70, denied it but was found guilty of perversion of justice by an Old Bailey jury by a majority of 10 to 1 after more than 35 hours of deliberation.

Aaron Williams, 29, was unanimously found guilty of perverting justice by helping Raphael dispose of the body.

But Raphael’s disabled brother Joseph Kokkinos, 32, and Michael Brain, 29, were acquitted of the charges.

Benoni Thomas, 38, who was said to be present at the home at the time of the murder, denied and was acquitted of manslaughter by the jury.

Raphael is sentenced with Sophia and Williams to a date to be set next month.

A night shift worker was driving past Mitcham Common in the early hours when he saw a small fire burning in some roadside bushes but saw nothing unusual and drove on.

“A little after 6am a cyclist drove past the same spot,” said Bill Emlyn Jones, QC, Charge.

“He too could see that something was on fire, but unlike the motorist, he stopped and walked closer to see what it was.

“And so it was he, the cyclist, who made a gruesome discovery: what was burning was the corpse of a dead man.”

The victim turned out to be Mr Guei, who had been killed two days earlier at the nearby home of Raphael Kokkinos.

“The prosecutor’s case is that Mr Guei was killed by Raphael Kokkinos.

“There was only one other person at Mr. Kokkinos’ home when Mr. Guei visited him.”

The prosecutor said Thomas fled the flat after the murder and left London.

“That, as you can probably imagine, left Raphael Kokkinos with a problem – he had a body to dispose of.

“He clearly decided that he wasn’t going to call the authorities and call the police or call an ambulance.

“Instead, he recruited his friends and family to help him with his problem,” said Mr Emlyn Jones.

“In the course of a little less than 48 hours, together they got rid of Mr Guei’s car in which he had arrived at the address where he was to be killed.

“They threw away his cell phone, they cleaned up the apartment.

“Eventually they got Mr Guei’s body from the address in a car and in the middle of the night they took the body to Mitcham Common, dumped it and set it on fire.

“They even partially undressed Mr. Guei, perhaps as a final humiliation, so that when he was found dead and on fire his underpants had been pulled around his thighs.”

Raphael Kokkinos had admitted killing Mr Guei, removing evidence and disposing of the body, but the prosecutor added: ‘The question is: who helped him?

“Who did he do it with? He wouldn’t have made it without their help.”

Raphael Kokkinos, from Streatham, south-west London, admitted manslaughter and perversion of justice.

Thomas, Hardwick, Cambridge, denied and was acquitted of manslaughter.

Sophia Kokkinos, Clapham, South West London and Williams, St Alphonsus Road, Clapham, denied but were convicted of perverting the law.

Joseph Kokkinos, also of Chelsham Road, and Brain, of The Grove, Bexley, south-east London, denied and were both acquitted of perverting the course of justice.