Harrogate solicitor ‘screamed hysterically as husband stabbed lover to death’

A HARROGATE solicitor whose husband is accused of stabbing her lover to death after tracking the pair’s secret liaison in a country lane has described in court how she was “screaming hysterically”as the alleged attack took place.
Kathleen Kilic outside Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry AgencyKathleen Kilic outside Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry Agency
Kathleen Kilic outside Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

Kathleen Kilic told a trial jury of the moment her husband Oktay attacked Mark Berney with a knife as they sat in a car in a layby in Ripley, North Yorkshire, last summer.

Leeds Crown Court heard this week that Turkish-born Kilic, who denies murdering Mr Berney, began spying on his partner after becoming suspicious that she was seeing someone else.

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Kilic hid his mobile phone in the boot of his wife Kathleen’s car after downloading an app so he could follow her via a laptop, to trace her movements on the night of August 3, the jury was told.

Oktay KilicOktay Kilic
Oktay Kilic

The court today heard that Mrs Kilic asked her husband to look after their children following a text she had received from Mark Berney asking her to meet up.

Mrs Kilic and Mr Berney, who had attended school together, made contact through a message on Facebook in June that year and had began messaging each other.

Their relationship developed and the first time they met for a drink they engaged in sexual contact, the jury was told.

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Mrs Kilic told the court that she had asked her husband to look after the children on the day of the incident and told him that she was going to meet a client and could be up to two hours.

Giving evidence in court, Mrs Kilic said: “I said I had to go and see a client. I said they lived in Bilton. He said whereabouts in Bilton and I said ‘does it matter’, then I left.”

Mrs Kilic went to meet Mr Berney at the Social Club in Knaresborough, before the pair drove to a country lane layby in nearby Ripley.

The court heard that after the two had pulled into the layby they became aware of another car on the country lane.

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Mrs Kilic said: “The first vehicle I didn’t see, but heard go down the road and Mark said ‘don’t worry, it’s just a taxi’.”

Mrs Kilic told the court that when she saw the car that had pulled up opposite to them she realised it was her husband and the pair began to panic.

She said: “Mark said ‘close the doors’ or ‘lock the doors’. He was in the front passenger seat. I was in the drivers seat.

“I tried to close the doors. I think Mark’s door might have been slightly open. Oktay came round the front of the car. He shouted something.

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“He said ‘what are you doing with my wife’ or ‘you f***ing b***tard’ or something derogatory, I don’t know which one it was. He went to hit Mark and Mark went to retaliate back. There was a bit of a

scuffle.

“I thought he punched Mark in the chest then I saw blood. Then I realised it wasn’t just a punch and then I realised he had a knife.

“When I saw the blood on his chest I jumped out of the car screaming for Oktay to get off him. I was screaming hysterically. Then I got out of the car and went around.

“I tried to push Oktay off him but I couldn’t move him and he continued to attack Mark.”

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Mrs Kilic told the court that her children were in the car and said: “They were screaming.”

The court heard that Mrs Kilic then drove off with a lifeless Mr Berney in the car and pleaded with passersby for help before contacting the emergency services.

When giving evidence in court she said that she first began speaking to her husband on the internet and over phone calls before travelling to Turkey in February 2005.

Mrs Kilic then went back to Turkey in April and May of that year after which Kilic came to England in September for three months.

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The court heard that the couple married in April 2006 and shared a house together in Harrogate. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl, but began developing problems in their relationship when Mr Kilic began gambling.

Mrs Kilic told the court that she was aware her husband had been tracking her and said that: “he had told my mum that he had tracked me before.”

The court heard that Mr Kilic had become aware that his wife had been engaging in sexual texts with other men in January 2014.

Mrs Kilic told the court that she played a scrabble game online where she had got chatting to other men - but maintained she had never had any sexual

relationships with them.

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Mrs Kilic said: “I wasn’t talking to them on the Internet. I was playing a scrabble game.

“From January we started chatting and yes it became flirty and Oktay read a message.”

The court heard that Mrs Kilic had been in conversation with three men and the marriage between her and her husband had become increasingly strained.

Describing the moment that Kilic approached the car where she and lover were sat, she said Mr Berney had pulled up his trousers before her husband

made his way to the door of the passenger seat.

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Defending Mr Kilic, John McDermott QC said: “Mr Berney shouted ‘f**k off, she doesn’t want you anymore.” To which Mrs Kilic replied: “I don’t remember.”

Mr McDermott said: “It was shocking in the extreme. You have used the word frenzied in your statement. Would that be a fair assessment? Mr Kilic said: “Yes.”

Mr McDermott added: “He walked straight passed you. He didn’t say a word to you. Did he have some sort of fixed look on his face?”

Mrs Kilic said: “a blank look. He always had a blank look.”

Kilic denies intending to murder his love rival in the knife attack stating he “only wanted to hurt him”. Following his arrest, he told police: “I stabbed him, I hope he is not dead.”

The trial continues.