Girl, 15, killed by her father in name of 'honour'

Published on Thursday 17 December 2009 22:26

A FATHER was jailed for life yesterday for the "honour killing" of his 15-year-old daughter, who disappeared more than a decade ago.

Psychotic bully Mehmet Goren was told he must serve at least 22 years after he was found guilty of murder by an Old Bailey jury.

Tulay Goren was killed in January 1999 after her father discovered her "Romeo and Juliet" romance with a man from a different branch of Islam. Her father later attacked her boyfriend Halil Unal with an axe outside a pub.

Her body has never been found, and yesterday her elder sister, Nuray Guler, called on Goren to reveal what he had done with her remains.

Nuray, 28, who has since lost another sister, Hatice, in a car crash, said after the verdict: "For my father, I have only one request. I ask that he finally discloses the whereabouts of my sister.

"I wake up at night wondering where Tulay may be. In quiet moments during the day, I ask myself if she suffered, or knew what was in store for her.

"I ask that he put an end to the nightmares that haunt us and allow us to retrieve Tulay in order that she may rest in peace alongside her sister Hatice."

Mrs Guler's call echoed that of her mother, Hanim Goren, who demanded during the trial that her husband reveal what he had done with Tulay.

"Look at my face. What did you do to Tulay? Say it so that I can…" she said before she was interrupted by the judge.

Mrs Goren, who now lives in fear of reprisals, was too upset to return for yesterday's verdict.

Detective Chief Inspector John Macdonald said: "Although it has taken some time, there has finally been some justice for Tulay. There should be no place in any society for the outdated feudal beliefs that led to this murder."

Goren, 49, subjected his family to years of misery, once trying to gas them all to death and on another occasion to inject his wife Hanim with rat poison.

Tulay was desperate for a way out and became besotted with Mr Unal when she met him at the clothes factory where she worked during the school holidays. She told a friend she might have been pregnant.

To her father, the affair made her a "worthless commodity", because he could not marry her off for 5,000. The relationship was also unacceptable to him, because Mr Unal was a Sunni Muslim, while the Gorens followed the Alevi branch of the faith.

Goren, of Woodford Green, north-east London, showed no emotion as he was convicted yesterday by a unanimous verdict.

The judge, Mr Justice Bean, said Goren's attempts to appear a "thoroughly modern and enlightened family man" failed to deceive the jury. He told the killer: "The reality is that your enigmatic smile conceals a violent and dominating personality."

He said Goren planned the murder of his daughter with "considerable care", even forcing her to write a letter relating a false account of what had happened to her to try to throw police off the scent.

Goren disposed of the schoolgirl's body "with such ingenuity that it has never been found", he added. "You did all this simply because you regarded it as unacceptable that she, rather than you, should choose the man she wanted to marry."

The judge added: "The term 'honour killing' is a convenient shorthand, but it is a grotesque distortion of language. There is nothing honourable about such a hideous practice or the people who carry it out."

The judge made clear that Goren would not be eligible for parole until 2030, when he will be nearly 70. His brothers, Ali Goren, 56, and Cuma Goren, 43, both of Walthamstow, London, were cleared of the murder charge. All three were cleared of a conspiracy to murder Tulay's boyfriend, Halil Unal.