“I am here not only for myself. I am here for the women like me, but also the ones that lost their lives, or had injuries like mine … we don’t deserve to have our lives ended.”
They were the powerful words from a woman whose husband was found guilty of attempted murder after stabbing her repeatedly in a suburban Shepparton street in October 2021.
In August, Mahmut Cigercioglu, 32, of Shepparton, was found guilty by a jury in the Supreme Court of the attempted murder of Lutfiye Kavci.
On Friday, November 3, Ms Kavci read her impassioned victim impact statement to the court as legal representatives in the case made final submissions about sentencing.
“Why did my life need to be ended, why did my son need to be left without a mother, why did my mother and father need to be left without a daughter, and why did my siblings need to be left without a sister?” she said.
“You put thought into how you wanted to end my life.
“You put that knife deeply into my body … knowing it was going to end my life.
“I still remember your face while you were doing it. It was emotionless.”
Ms Kavci spoke about things that were now triggering to her, including most days having to pass the scene where she was stabbed.
“After a trauma, you don’t have an end to the healing journey. It goes on for life,” she said.
“This is about a new mother who almost had her life changed in the most brutal way.”
She also spoke of her time in hospital.
“Before I was transferred to The Alfred, my family had photos taken together while I was in a coma because they did not know if I would make it,” she said.
The court heard how Ms Kavci was initially in a coma, then could not eat solids and later had to learn to walk again.
Ms Kavci also spoke of fighting to be able to use a breast pump that would allow her to continue to feed her son, even though it hurt, and then being upset that she was only able to continue this for four months.
She also said she did not want to remain in the house she lived in, but had not been able to find anywhere else to live.
Ms Kavci said she felt she was not heard by police when she complained to them previously about her husband’s behaviour and now she has vowed to stand up for other victims of domestic violence.
“What about the women who didn’t make it? We can’t hear them no more,” she said.
“I was going to be another woman who lost her life to domestic violence.”
She wants to write a book to give hope to other victim-survivors.
“That day you took the power over me and tried to end my life,” she said.
“Now I have the power.”