DOUBLE TRAGEDY
GRANDFATHER OF SEVEN-YEAR-OLD BOY ‘STABBED TO DEATH BY HIS MOTHER’ DIES FROM HEART ATTACK
POLICE yesterday urged the media and members of the public to avoid spreading false information about the harrowing murder of a child in Gönyeli that left the nation in a state of shock this week.
Ercan Kaya Kunduracı, aged seven, was found dead in a flat on Atatürk Caddesi at around 7pm on Monday after allegedly being stabbed multiple times by his mother, Bilge Lord Kunduracı, 36.
He had been found by his maternal grandparents, who had gone to check on the pair, and tragedy struck again when his grandfather, Tahir Lord, 64, suffered a heart attack shortly after coming across the horrifying scene. He was rushed to hospital but could not be saved. His wife Sümer, 66, was treated in hospital after fainting and later allowed home.
Police said they had recovered a knife from the flat as evidence.
Kunduracı’s estranged police officer husband and his father struggled to stand at little Ercan’s funeral in İskele on Tuesday. Mr Lord was buried in Gönyeli the same day.
Kunduracı, accused of pre-meditated murder, appeared before Lefkoşa District Court on Tuesday, amid tight security.
She was remanded in custody for an initial period of three days, which was extended by another seven days at a second hearing yesterday, where further distressing details of her son’s final hours were heard.
Police Inspector Mehmet Özmener, giving evidence to the court, said that Kunduracı had “decided to murder” her son after becoming angry over something her husband, “whom she is in the process of divorcing”, had posted on social media.
Inspector Özmener told the court that the boy had been stabbed or cut a total of 31 times over a period of hours, four of the injuries proving fatal, and had died of internal and external bleeding.
Cuts and bruises on the suspect’s face and body were down to blows she had received from her father before his heart attack, the court heard.
Asked by presiding judge Rauf Kürşad if she wished to make a statement, Kunduracı simply shook her head. Unsubstantiated reports about Kunduracı’s mental state and “misleading and false” claims on the details of the crime prompted police to issue a written statement yesterday.
“[We] are studiously carrying out the necessary investigations and
considering all findings in relation to the incident,” it said, and added that people had a “right and expectation to correct information” and that “unfounded claims misled the public”.
The death of the boy prompted widespread soul-searching among Turkish Cypriot society, with calls for better protection of vulnerable children, more help for couples going through divorce and for the mainstream media and social media users to act more responsibly.
Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman, speaking on Thursday after a meeting with President Mustafa Akıncı, said they had been “deeply disturbed” by the incident.
“The excessive reactions in social media are also equally upsetting,” he added. “People [need] education in this regard . . . This issue needs to be taken up with the teachers and with social welfare experts . . .
“People are inclined to forget after two or three days, but this is not going to happen with this issue.”
Earlier in the week Health Minister Filiz Besim said young children and teenagers needed to be shielded from details of the boy’s death.