Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

A man has told police how he throttled his wife to death with a vacuum cleaner power lead because the sound of her tidying drove him mad.

The bizarre killing – in Istanbul, Turkey – occurred when night watchman Gursel Kaya, 61, had returned home from work on Thursday, 23rd June.

He told police he could not get to sleep for the sound of his wife vacuuming.

Infuriated Kaya rowed with her over the noise, but then, he told police, he slipped the electrical cable around her neck and strangled her.

He then called the emergency services to say: “I have strangled my wife, she is not breathing.”

Police found his wife – 58-year-old Sengul Kaya – lying motionless on the floor.

An ambulance took the mother-of-three to hospital, where medics managed to revive her, but she died later in an intensive care unit.

During questioning, Kaya told the police: “There was a lot of noise. I had a ringing in my brain for a long time.

“I started to get annoyed with the sound of the vacuum cleaner. So I asked her to stop hoovering.”

Then, he told officers, he and his wife started arguing.

He continued: “When I pushed my wife in a moment of anger, she fell on her back.

“I lost control of myself, I choked my wife for a long time. My wife started scratching my body with her nails to get me off her.

“I saw the vacuum cleaner cable, I tied it around my wife’s neck. When my wife passed out, I called my son and then the police.”

He added that he regretted his actions and claimed it was the first time he had resorted to violence.

He was charged with ‘attempted murder of a spouse’ and was remanded in custody.

It is not clear why Kaya was charged with “attempted” murder, but it may be because Sengul died later in hospital rather than at the scene.

Femicide is a growing problem in Turkey, particularly after the country officially quit the Istanbul Convention in July last year.

According to the 2021 Annual Data Report announced by the ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’, 280 women were killed by men in 2021, while 217 women were found suspiciously dead.

According to data from the ‘Monument Counter’, which is “a digital memorial for women killed by violence” and is updated daily, 191 femicides have taken place in Turkey so far this year.