Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

A man who poured hot oil over his girlfriend’s face, chest, arms and back and stabbed her after breaking into her apartment has been jailed for 14 years.

The incident took place in Kucukcekmece, which is a district on the outskirts of Turkey’s largest city Istanbul, in September 2019 and the defendant had already been convicted once but this was overturned by an appeals court because a forensic report on the matter was missing.

Now the case has been retried and the defendant, named by local media outlet Haberler as Ersin Ulker, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for stabbing and pouring hot oil on his estranged girlfriend, Kubra Tayfur, in a move which upholds the original conviction.

The defendant had originally been sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2020 but this was overturned by a Court of Appeal on the grounds that the case was missing a report from the Forensic Medicine Institute regarding whether the oil had left a permanent mark on the victim’s face, so the case was sent back to the Bakirkoy 20th High Criminal Court.

The defendant was accused of breaking into his girlfriend’s apartment while she slept. He was unhappy that she had reported him to the police for domestic violence and he attacked her with a knife before putting hot oil in a teapot and pouring it on her arms, chest, back and face.

The couple had moved in together in 2015 and they had two children together, who have not been named. But nine months before the attack, the victim moved out due to conflicts with the defendant.

On the night of the incident, the defendant broke into her apartment and grabbed the victim by the throat, saying: “How could you report me to the police?”

The defendant closed an open window through which he had entered the apartment and squeezed Kubra’s throat before pouring hot oil on her.

Though the public prosecutor had requested up to 20 years in prison, Ulker was jailed for 12 years for “deliberately attempting to kill” Kubra, with two more years added on for breaking into her home.