A former chef was found dead after being beaten 'over many weeks' and made to sleep in a garage next to dogs, a court heard.
Dimitrious Tsavdaris, 55, was found lying in a foetal position on the bedroom floor of a flat in Hackney, east London, on January 29 2024.
Jurors at the Old Bailey heard he had become addicted to crack cocaine after his brother died and fell under the influence of Bamidele Fawehinmi, a drug dealer who exploited and beat him.
Mr Tsavdaris, also known as Jimmy, was found with fractures to his ribs, face and breastbone and bleeds to his brain.
He weighed just 53kg (8st), the court heard.
Fawehinmi, 33, denies manslaughter, keeping Mr Tsavdaris in servitude and causing grievous bodily harm with intent by fracturing his left cheek and jawbone seven weeks before he died.
Mr Tsavdaris, a father of one, had worked as a chef and taxi driver before becoming addicted to crack cocaine after his brother's sudden death.
Prosecuting, Caroline Carberry KC said Fawehinmi was a 'drug dealer who preys on vulnerable older men, men who struggle themselves with drug addiction'.
Jurors heard Dimitrious Tsavdaris (pictured) was exploited and beaten by Bamidele Fawehinmi after his brother's sudden death led to him spiralling into a crack cocaine addiction
She said he 'fed their drug addiction' while 'he beat them' and 'kept them in fear so they would do his bidding'.
He used these men, who lived in 'squalor', to 'help prepare and package and supply his drugs and to drive him around', she added.
In the weeks leading up to his death Mr Tsavdaris was attacked at the defendant's home in Wickford, Essex.
Ms Carberry said he was Fawehinmi's 'lackey' there and 'slept on a mattress on the floor of a garage where the defendant kept his dogs'.
Mr Tsavdaris was subjected to 'multiple violent beatings over many weeks', she said.
The Hackney flat where his body was found, 30 miles from Fawehinmi's address, belonged to another vulnerable man called Anthony Anuforo.
Ms Carberry said Fawehinmi used Mr Anuforo's address for drug dealing and gave him crack cocaine in return.
Mr Anuforo was 'cuckooed' by Fawehinmi, meaning he 'was used, his address was used for criminal purposes, in this case to facilitate his trade in the supply of drugs'.
The Hackney street where Mr Tsavdaris was found dead in January 2024 with 'significant injuries'
When he was found Ms Carberry said Mr Tsavdaris had 'sustained significant injuries'.
She said there were 'multiple fractures to his ribs, fractures to his face, his eye socket, his jaw bone, a fracture to his breastbone and both old and fresh bleeds between his skull and brain as well as internal injuries'.
A 'thin and frail man', Ms Carberry said Mr Tsavdaris could have been 'dead or dying for several days'.
But she said his life 'wasn't always that way'.
'He had been a chef, he had been a taxi driver, he had been married, he had a son, but his world unravelled a number of years ago following the sudden death of his brother and he became addicted to crack cocaine,' she said.
After Mr Tsavdaris died, Fawehinmi tried to flee to Lagos, Nigeria, but his father called police, who stopped him at Heathrow Airport.
Ms Carberry said: 'The police were alerted to Dimitrios's death by this defendant's own father who, upon learning from his son that there was a dead body in a flat associated with his son, did the right thing and reported Jimmy's death to the police.
'Meanwhile his son, knowing that he had killed a man, tried to flee the country via Heathrow airport to Lagos in Nigeria.'
Fawehinmi denies manslaughter, causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Tsavdaris and keeping him in servitude, under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
The trial continues.
