NEW: Ripley murder trial continues

Leeds Crown Court yesterday (January 20) heard from police interviews which took place after Oktay Kilic, 40, of Kent Drive in Harrogate handed himself in to police on August 4, 2014.

Kilic stabbed Knaresborough man, Mark Berney, 44, in a frenzied attack on August 3 2014 after discovering him in a roadside tryst with his wife, Kathleen Kilic.

In his police interview Kilic said: “I remember him [Mr Berney] telling me ‘she doesn’t want you’ then I went with the knife and he was blocking with his hands.”

He said: “I was trying to shut him up,” and, “You say I stabbed him many times but I don’t know how this happened it is darkness.”

Kilic spoke about finding his wife with another man and said: “That was just horror for me, that was the end of the world for me, I couldn’t cope with it. I didn’t mean to kill him, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t go there to kill him, if I did I would tell you, this is the end of the world for me anyway.”

He added: “I lost it, I’m sorry I lost it, I didn’t mean to kill anyone.”

Kilic said in his police interview that when Mrs Killic grabbed him during the attack at Whipley Lane near Ripley, it was as if he ‘woke up’.

“I remember how it started and how it finished.”

He said: “I meant to hurt him not to kill him, why would I go there with my four and six year old children if I go to kill someone? I wasn’t there to kill anybody.”

Kilic told police he did not take the kitchen knife which was used in the attack with him to the scene of the crime and that it was already in Mrs Kilic’s car, left from a previous family pic nic at Fewston Reservoir.

Kilic’s friend, Aslan Yelsin gave evidence and told the jury he thought the killing was a ‘crime of passion.’

Mr Yelsin, who has known Kilic since childhood and was best man at his wedding, said Kilic turned up at his doorstep at around 1am on August 4 and said: ‘Maybe I might have killed somebody.’

Mr Yelsin said: “He said he used a knife, he told me he saw his wife with another man and he lost control. It was like a crime of passion.”

The court also heard how strained the relationship between Mrs Kilic and Kilic had become. Kilic told Detective Sergeant Alex Jackson: “I am not a control freak, I can’t control her. I couldn’t walk away because of the children.”

He added: “I was going to move out but then my son started crying and I just couldn’t”

Mr Yelsin had visited the couple’s home a couple of months before the attack to mediate after an argument. Kilic told Mr Yelsin he suspected Mrs Kilic of having an affair, though the couple made up.

Mr Yelsin said: “He was very much concerned about his marriage, he was a very good father.”

Kilic has pleaded not guilty to murder. The case continues.

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