A FATHER and son accused of murdering two Co Down women in Turkey last year have continued to protest their innocence, calling a key witness in the murder trial “a liar” as he gave evidence against them yesterday.
Marion Graham from Newry and Cathy Dinsmore from Warrenpoint were on holiday in the Aegean Sea resort of Kusadasi in August last year when their bodies were found with multiple stab wounds in a wood near Izmir. The women who had been long-term friends were both aged 53.
Father and son Eyup and Recep Cetin are being tried in a series of hearings which are being held over a number of months in the city of Izmir.
Recep Cetin was the boyfriend of Mrs Graham’s teenage daughter Shannon, who was 15 at the time of the murders.
An official from the Turkish Birth Registry office told
the court yesterday that Recep Cetin’s legally accepted age was 22, not 17 as he had previously claimed.
This means that Recep Cetin will be trialled as an adult and if convicted face a heavier penalty, rather than the juvenile justice system where it was initially being dealt with.
Yesterday a panel of four judges heard evidence from a witness who testified via video link from another courtroom, his identity protected and his voice disguised.
The witness claimed he had been visiting a graveyard close to the forest on the day of the killings.
He told the court he heard moans and screams and after following a path saw the suspects standing beside an electricity pillar.
The witness said he went to the police the following day when he saw a newspaper report on the murders.
However, a defence lawyer said that according to police records the witness did not go to the police for more than a month after the killings.
Recep and Eyup Cetin’s defence said they did not accept the witness’s statement and called him a liar.
They asked the court to set the pair free but the judges ordered that they be kept in custody.
The court also heard evidence from a taxi driver who drove both victims from Kusadasi, where they were staying, to Izmir along with Recep Cetin.
Lawyer for the victims’ families, Baris Kaska, said he believed there would be several more evidence sessions before the case concludes.
The case was adjourned until December 28.