Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Adam Everett

Kebab shop owner tried to slash wife's face with skewer and locked her in cellar

A kebab shop owner tried to slash his wife's face with a skewer before locking her in a cellar.

Huseyin Erdogan also made sinister threats to arrange for a hitman to murder his partner after she accused him of having an affair. The restaurateur was told by a judge that he held views which were "unacceptable in a modern society"

Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Wednesday, that the 54-year-old was confronted by his wife Samara at the Istanbul Grill on Mersey Street in Warrington town centre on April 1 this year. Peter Wilson, prosecuting, described how she believed he was having an affair, but Erdogan responded by shouting "you are a stupid w***e" and slapping her in the face - causing bleeding to her ear.

READ MORE: Jermaine Pennant's abandoned mansion gutted by blaze weeks after fire destroyed home

The businessman started trying to slash at his victim's face with a skewer, pushing her down into the basement while continuing to "lash out" with the implement. He trapped her in the cellar and threatened to "cut her with a knife" if she called the police.

Ms Erdogan suffered injuries to her forearms and legs as a result. Then, on April 16, she discovered her 11-year-daughter was speaking to the defendant on the phone at 1am.

The complainant took the mobile from her and spoke to the defendant, telling him she wanted a divorce. Erdogan, of Mersey Street, replied: "You're going to make me a murderer.

"I'll kill you and I won't get a big sentence for that. I'll kill you or I'll arrange for someone to kill you."

Erdogan again called her a "w***e" and threatened to "f*** her mum and sisters". When she told him she would call the police, he said: "If you do I will f*** you."

In a statement read out to the court on her behalf, Ms Erdogan said she was "always humiliated" by her attacker, who "threatened to take her children away from her". She added: "I don't feel safe and I don't think I ever will be.

"I am really scared he will kill me. If something will happen to me, it will be him who is responsible.

"I am scared he will pay someone to kill me. I am psychologically finished now."

Erdogan - who has no previous convictions - runs several businesses in the Warrington area, as well as in Turkey. He has lived in the UK for 21 years, with his wife and four children having moved here in 2019.

Julian Farley, defending, said: "He accepted at the final hurdle his wrong doing. He is a very old-fashioned gentleman so far as his relationship with his wife is concerned.

"He is a reasonably successful businessman, owning restaurants in Warrington as well as in Turkey and shops in Turkey as well. He sees his role is to provide for his family.

"A man and a woman are expected to do certain things in Turkey, and a woman is expected to remain married to a man for life. There were difficulties in the marriage and she felt she could not get out of it."

Erdogan admitted assault and making threats to kill shortly before he was due to stand trial. He was jailed for 23 months, handed an indefinite restraining order and told to pay a victim surcharge.

Sentencing, Judge David Hale said: "It has been said on your behalf that you have an old fashioned approached to family life. It is an approach which is totally unacceptable in a modern society, irrespective of whatever ethnic background you are from.

"You are living in England, and you have got to obey the law of England. If the way you behave to your wife is the way life occurs in Turkey, I am very sorry for the female population of Turkey.

"You cannot treat your wife as cattle. Why should she not object to you having a girlfriend, because she should?

"You treated her as someone who has got to put up with anything you say to her. She had to leave her home, take the children away and live in secrecy - she seems a broken woman."

READ NEXT: Boy, 17, arrested after teen stabbed outside block of flats

Mum stole thousands of pounds from hospice after falling victim to romance scam

'Foolish' dad who tried to smuggle 100,000 cigarettes through airport twice

Cage fighter still on the run as drug gang sentencing continues

Sacked police boss claims senior officer 'bullied and harassed' her

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.