A couple who have allegedly been passing the time during lockdown by torturing the woman’s children are facing life in prison.

Harrowing footage that went viral online shows the mother using a cushion to suffocate her young daughter, while her partner films it, in the district of Korfez in the north-western Turkish province of Kocaeli.

In the video, the young girl’s mother, Nurcan Serce, 36, is seen forcefully holding her daughter down on the sofa and suffocating her with a pillow over her face.

The young girl who was begging for her mum to stop tries to break free, but to no avail.

Her partner, identified as Hayrettin Bahar, who is filming makes no attempt to stop what is happening.

One of the children stated that Bahar, age not disclosed, constantly provoked Serce to beat them and said, “When my mother beat us, Hayrettin would bring a stick and ask my mother to beat us with that stick.”

Interviewed about her actions, the mother insisted that she was not a bad mother and denied her children’s claim that it happened regularly, saying: “I watched the video on social media. That video has no explanation. My child asked me to stop while crying ‘mum, please’ and I hit her despite hearing this. It hurts me now so much.”

She added: “I was going through a tough period at that time.”

She said that she had been urged into the violence by her partner, who she claims was trying to trap her, although if true then that backfired Badly, as he is now also facing charges.

The prosecutor’s office completed the investigation and prepared an indictment for the mother on the charge of “deliberately attempting to murder a child”.

Another indictment was prepared for Hayrettin Bahar, who provoked the mother to beat the children, on the charge of “instigating murder”.

The girl was later taken into care by the authorities along with her five siblings, according to local media.

Serce has six children, two from her current partner and four children from her first marriage, all of whom were reportedly placed under state protection following the incident.

CNN Turkey reported that for both ‘aggravated life imprisonment’ was requested.

The date of the first hearing is not yet known.