Heartless, cruel and not a word of remorse
KILLER’S SICKENING NOTE TO VICTIM’S PARENTS
He was trying to save his own skin. It caused great distress to the victim’s family
A remorseless killer used a birthday card to his five-year-old daughter to smuggle a note from prison protesting his innocence.
Erhan Havaleoglu, 36, told his victim’s mum and dad he was “sad about your loss” after he murdered their daughter.
Leigh anne Cameron’ s distressed dad threw the note in the bin but later retrieved it on the instructions of police.
It was used in evidence at Havaleoglu’s trial last month after which he was found guilty of her murder.
Ha valeoglu was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison on Tuesday.
We can reveal the self- obsessed killer, who had cheated on Leighanne , 29, used a card to the couple’s daughter to smuggle a letter “assuring” her parents he wasn’t responsible for his terrible crime. The note was sent from prison inside a card in which he wrote that he missed his children Erin and Jamie.
The killer wrote: “David and Lynn, I’m as sad about your loss and my children losing their mum. I assure you I’m not responsible for her death.
“Can you please give Erin her birthday card from me wishing her happy birthday? Tell her and Jamie I really miss and love them very much.”
The message came through the post when Erin turned five in April.
David told the High Court during his evidence last month: “The first thing I did was scrunch it up. It distressed all of us.”
A source close to the case said: “This note was a callous, heartless attempt to save his own skin – all it did was cause great distress to the family.”
The source said: “Crown prosecutors were greatly moved by the way the family eloquently spoke about their loss. These lovely people are now bringing up the couple’s two beautiful children.”
Havaleoglu strangled Leighanne and stabbed her 10 times in the neck and twice in the back after spending the day looking after their children last October.
He fled the scene and left her dying on the floor of her home while the children, then aged four and 18 months, were sleeping. A speck of her blood was found on his shoes and some was found on the front door of his flat – where she had never been – and he was arrested over her death.
Havaleoglu, who served in the Turkish army before moving to Scotland in 2003, admitted he fought with Leighanne at their home in Mid Calder, Midlothian, on the day she died.
And the court heard Havaleoglu had previously warned her “she’d never get to love another man”. After his attack, Havaleoglu drove to Edinburgh via a back road where police believe he ditched the murder weapon and his clothes.
Neither the clothes nor weapon have been found. A jury took just under seven hours to find him guilty by majority of murder.
Judge Johanna Johnston QC told him: “This was a brutal and sustained attack.”
The le t t er sent by Havaleoglu was released to the Sunday Mail with the consent of Leighanne’s family, who did not wish to comment further last week.