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Schoolgirl in love 'tortured by father' claim
12 Oct 2009A 15-year-old schoolgirl allegedly murdered for falling in love told her boyfriend that she had been "tortured" by her father, a court heard today.
Tulay Goren went missing in January 1999 and her body has never been found, jurors have been told.
She is alleged to have been killed by her father Mehmet Goren, after he consulted with his brothers, over her relationship with Halil Unal.
Mr Unal, speaking from behind a screen, told the Old Bailey about a time when they met up at Stratford bus station in east London.
He said: "When I saw Tulay there I looked at her face and I saw that she had bruising to her eye.
"She told me that her father tortured her and beat her and that her uncle Cuma was pressuring her."
"I said 'all this will pass, don't worry'. She said to me, 'really, genuinely, I hate these people, I hate the house'.
"In fact she said she didn't have much time, she said she had to go. She said 'because my father follows me all the time'."
Mehmet Goren, 49, of Navestock Crescent, Woodford Green, and his brothers, Cuma Goren, 42, of Evesham Avenue, Walthamstow, and Ali Goren, 55, of Brettenham Road, Walthamstow, deny murdering Tulay on January 7 1999.
They also deny conspiracy to murder Mr Unal, between May 1998 and February 1999.
Mr Unal, who came to Britain from Turkey in 1992, told the court how he first met Tulay when she worked at a clothes factory in Hackney, east London, during her summer holidays in 1998.
Her mother also worked at the factory, where Mr Unal was a supervisor, the court was told.
Mr Unal, now 41, said Tulay told him that she was 17 and he said he was 29.
"Tulay said 'age isn't important, what is important is mutual love'," said Mr Unal, speaking through a Turkish interpreter. "She was unhappy, she wanted to have someone that she could embrace as a husband."
The court heard that she told him: "Halil, I like you a lot, I hate my family and I want to run away from that house. I am looking for a man who will love me and marry me."
Mr Unal said he asked Tulay's mother Hanim for her daughter's hand in marriage, but she said that an uncle in Switzerland wanted her to marry his son.
After the girl stopped working at the factory they would speak to each other on the phone two or three times a day, Mr Unal said.
"She was saying that she loved me very much. She said 'I want to be with you'.
"My feelings were 'that would be good, we could be together, we could start a family, we could have a house."
He would tell her he loved her and sing to her, the court heard.
The court heard that in December last year, Mehmet Goren came to the factory where he grabbed Mr Unal by the collar and beat him up, and told him to stop "bothering" Tulay.
Mr Unal said he did not hit back "because I loved his daughter".
He added: "I have been waiting for ten years for this case to be brought about and I am very happy and at peace at the fact that I am here today."
