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Mother’s tears for daughter who was ‘killed for honour’
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent20 Oct 2009
The mother of an alleged “honour killing” victim broke down in tears in court today as she described finding her daughter tied up the day before she disappeared.
Hanim Goren told jurors she discovered 15-year-old Tulay lying face down on the floor in a bedroom with her hands and her feet bound.
She said her husband Mehmet told her that he had tied up their daughter to stop her from running away.
Mrs Goren wiped away tears as she gave evidence at the Old Bailey trial of Mehmet Goren and his brothers Ali and Cuma.
Mehmet is accused of killing his daughter, after consulting his brothers, because he believed she had brought shame on their family by falling in love with the wrong man.
The teenager had left the family to stay with her boyfriend Halil Unal, 30, but her parents brought her back just days before her disappearance.
Mrs Goren said later that day she returned home with another daughter, 13-year-old Hatice, to find her Mehmet and Cuma sitting downstairs.
Speaking through a Turkish interpreter, she said: “In the children's bedroom I saw Tulay lying on the floor face down. Her hands and her feet were tied up. Her hands and her feet were all a purple, black colour, tied ... the two of us tried to untie her.
“Tulay said mum, don't untie, I want to die'. Mehmet had come from downstairs... [he said] so that she doesn't run away again, I tied her up'.”
Mehmet Goren, 49, of Woodford Green, Cuma Goren, 42, and Ali Goren, 56, both of Walthamstow, all deny murdering Tulay in January 1999.
They also deny conspiracy to murder Mr Unal.
The case continues.
