Victim named as two Brighton kitchen workers remanded in custody charged with murder

Two Italian kitchen workers from Brighton, charged with murder, were remanded in custody when they appeared at Lewes Crown Court today (Monday 16 September).

Serxhio Marku

Francesco Dagostino, 44, of Stafford Road, Brighton, and Giuseppe Petriccione, 45, of no fixed address, were being held at Highdown Prison in Sutton.

Sussex Police named the victim as Serxhio Marku, a 21-year-old Albanian, and appealed for information about him.

The force said: “Two men charged with the murder of Albanian man Serxhio Marku in Brighton have appeared at Lewes Crown Court.

“Serxhio, 21, was found critically injured when police officers forced entry into a flat in Stafford Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning (11 September).

“He had suffered serious injuries and was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead.

“Detectives are now trying to discover how he came to be in the flat and his movements in the city prior to then.”

Detective Chief Inspector Alex Geldart, from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, who is leading the inquiry, said: “Specialist family liaison officers are supporting Serxhio’s family, who are mainly in Albania, and our thoughts are with them and his friends.

“I am particularly keen to reach out to Serxhio’s friends in the Brighton area as we know very little about him and we want to find out where he lived and who he associated with locally.

“We believe that he may have travelled from the city to the Seven Dials area, and possibly on to Stafford Road, by taxi during the evening before he was attacked.

“He may have been with two other men and we would like to hear from the taxi driver who carried that fare.

“I urge anyone with information about the incident, events leading up to it or especially about Serxhio himself, to report online or call 101 quoting Operation Barnfield.”

Petriccione and Dagostino, who comes from Naples, were charged with murder on Friday night (13 September) and appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (14 September).

They were remanded in custody to appear at Lewes Crown Court today.

They were further remanded for a plea and trial preparation hearing on Friday 1 November in advance of a trial provisionally set for Monday 24 February next year.