A mum whose eight-year-old son was stabbed to death by her estranged husband has told how police ignored her fears that he planned to kill him.

Desperate Damira Zinnurova told police that Mustafa Topkaya, 44, threatened to kill their son Mehmet after demanding cash from her.

But, says Damira, they told her she was worrying over nothing until Topkaya killed the boy during a court-ordered custody visit on 8th September.

Topkaya took his son to a relative’s house and stabbed him repeatedly, finally killing him by cutting his throat, according to local media in Mersin, Turkey.

Topkaya is recovering in hospital after apparently trying to take his own life.

Mum Damira, a Russian national, told local media: “I can’t understand how this was allowed to happen, I contacted the police, the prosecutor’s office.

“They told me everywhere I was wrong and said: ‘How can you think a father would do something like this and harm his own child? They will definitely show up somewhere, and when they do we will hand the child over to you’.

“In fact, they didn’t even really look, they were just waiting for him to show up somewhere. As a result, my son is no more.”

The couple married after meeting in 2013 when Damira started working in Turkey as a travel agent.

But as the relationship grew more strained, according to local media, Topkaya became more violent.

After separating, Damira was ordered by a court to allow her ex custody visits.

Her sister, named only as Elana S., told local media how Topkaya had beaten his son brutally during an earlier meeting.

It was so severe that Damira’s older son by another marriage called the police.

Elana said: “That day he tried to break the child’s head! It’s good that the eldest son called the police.

“He later confirmed all this to the police and told a psychologist. And guess what?

“The psychologist still wrote a conclusion that he could see the child on the weekends! And this is after what happened!”