Grisly end game in ‘horror’ house
EXCLUSIVE: Three teenagers who rented a Sydney home allegedly tortured a friend to teach him a lesson in ways police suspect were based on a medieval-style online game.
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EXCLUSIVE: Three teenagers who rented a Sydney home allegedly tortured a friend to teach him a lesson in ways police suspect were based on a medieval-style online game.
Justin Tsang, 17, and his alleged attackers met online playing combat game Mount And Blade: Warband, and detectives fear they became addicted and could not distinguish between online violence and reality.
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A court heard this week Tsang pleaded for his life as two of the “friends” allegedly took turns to beat him with a bat and wrench in a five-hour ordeal.
Police will allege Tsang was taken to each of the five bedrooms in the home in Lily St, Burwood Heights.
The incident, which police do not think was premeditated, was allegedly punishment for the theft of items worth $500, which the friends — who played video games for hours — blamed on Tsang.
Police will allege the accused ringleader in the attack, Yigit Erdogan, 19, instructed the others to repeatedly stab Tsang with a knife after he fell unconscious during the torture session.
It is believed one of the group watched as two others bashed Tsang until he stopped resisting about 2pm on March 12.
It is alleged they then bundled his body into a car and drove one and half hours to a Blue Mountains lookout, where they allegedly buried him in a shallow grave.
The three friends included Randwick-Petersham club cricketer Joel Robertson, 18, and Chris Hopkinson.
Erdogan, 19, and 18-year-olds Hopkinson and Robertson have been charged with kidnapping and murdering Tsang.
“They don’t think there are any consequences and often suffer very little remorse.”
Property records show the house was rented out five times in the past 16 years by real estate agent Ray White Real Estate Burwood.
The latest tenants, who include Hopkinson and Robertson, moved in on March 13 last year.
Forensic police in blue overalls yesterday were seen carting out bags from the house and a box containing computer drives and laptops.
“Young kids play these games for hours on end and become desensitised to reality and think because they can kill a person on the screen, (maybe) they can do the same in real life,” Detective Inspector Joe Doueihi told The Saturday Telegraph.
Tsang’s grieving mother Hoang called for violent online games to be banned.
“I’ve lost a good boy. Justin played his computer in his room for many hours, sometimes we wouldn’t see him for hours,” she said from her home in Canada Bay.
“He never upset anyone or has ever been in trouble.”
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