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Marion Graham and Cathy Dinsmore murders: Turkey trial enters final phase Marion Graham and Cathy Dinsmore murders: Turkish man found guilty
(about 9 hours later)
The trial of a Turkish father and son accused of killing two British women on holiday enters its final phase on Wednesday. The former Turkish boyfriend of a Northern Ireland teenager has been found guilty of murdering her mother and her best friend.
Recep Cetin and his father, Eyup, will face verdicts in the double murder case at a court in the Turkish city of Izmir. A four-judge court in Izmir handed down two life sentences to Recep Cetin for the double murder of Marion Graham and Cathy Dinsmore in a frenzied knife attack at a forest outside the city in August 2011.
The pair are accused of killing Marion Graham and Cathy Dinsmore, from County Down, who were found stabbed to death near the city in August 2011. The judges at the Izmir Bayrakli Fifth High Criminal Court said the sentences are to be served in solitary confinement.
The two friends were staying together in the resort town of Kusadasi. The prosecution alleges they were lured to their deaths in a wooded area outside Izmir by Recep Cetin. His father, Eyup Cetin, was acquitted of the murders by the same court. His son had always insisted that Eyup Cetin played no part in the killings even though an unnamed female witness claimed to have seen the latter at the murder scene. Recep Cetin had been dating Shannon Graham at the time of the killings.
He was the boyfriend of Graham's teenage daughter, Shannon, and had pretended to be in his teens himself. However, a series of medical tests following the killings revealed that Recep Cetin had lied about his age and was in fact in his twenties. He tried to claim he was a teenager in order to be tried in a youth court, where he would have potentially got a more lenient sentence. At an earlier hearing, Eyup Cetin had protested his innocence. "I am innocent but I have been in prison for two years. I accept any sentence the court will give if there is any evidence showing my involvement in this incident."
His father was also charged with the murders several months later. Recep Cetin was said to be furious over Marion Graham's opposition to her daughter marrying him. Shannon Graham was just 15 years old when the Turkish waiter asked her to be his wife.
Four judges have been hearing the case; there is no jury. Marion Graham was stabbed 17 times after being lured to the outskirts of Izmir by Recep Cetin. Her friend Cathy Dinsmore suffered more than 35 stab wounds in the attack. He had lured the women to Izmir after offering to drive them to the city on a shopping trip. The women's bodies were found buried in shallow graves inside the woodland.
The trial was delayed when Recep Cetin claimed he was psychiatrically ill. Medical examinations showed that he was not. Shannon Graham and her mother were from Newry city in County Down, while Cathy Dinsmore lived just a few miles away in the town of Warrenpoint.
Recep Cetin has backed up his father's claim of innocence. But a witness, whose identity was kept secret, said she had seen both men at the murder scene. The women, who were in their 50s, often took holidays in the Turkish Aegean, where Marion Graham had a holiday home. They were all staying in the Turkish resort of Kusadasi at the time of the murders.
If convicted, the men face potential prison sentences of about 40 years. Recep Cetin, who worked as a waiter, was arrested and charged shortly after the bodies were found.
After his arrest, he falsely claimed to be 17 in an effort to be tried in the juvenile court, where sentences are lighter. However, bone marrow tests carried out on behalf of the prosecution found that he was in fact in his twenties and could be tried in an adult court.
In an attempt to stop being tried in the adult court Recep Cetin then attempted to claim he was mentally ill – a plea that was also rejected by the court.
Lawyers for Recep Cetin in their final defence submission claimed that he committed the crime under heavy provocation.
The verdict and sentence were previously delayed because two of the judges on the panel were temporary and could not make a ruling on the case.
Relatives of the murdered women, including Cathy Dinsmore's brother, George, were in court for the verdict.
George Dinsmore described Recep Cetin as "evil" and claimed the double murder was entirely premeditated.
He told Ulster Television last night: "It's something he had been getting ready to do, it wasn't something that happened in the spur of the moment. It's pure evil. I can't understand how somebody can do that."
On a Facebook page dedicated to Cathy Dinsmore and Marion Graham's memory, one friend posted: "Justice was served. RIP my sunshine girls."
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