The Turkish police are holding a woman in custody for shooting her husband during a rape attack where he handcuffed her and threatened to kill their children.

Melek Ipek, 31, was repeatedly beaten and attacked by her husband Ramazan Ipek, 36, during the course of their 12-year marriage and he allegedly said he planned to kill her in the attack that happened last week.

The couple had two children and every time she was hospitalised he threatened to kill her if she complained to police. Her husband was a keen hunter with numerous weapons and he also allegedly threatened to kill their children, according to local media.

She said he told her: “A protection order will not save you, I will testify against you and even if they lock me up, I will kill you and the children when I am released. When I have killed you, I will mince your bodies and feed you to the dogs so that no one even knows you are dead.”

On the night that he was shot, he had again beaten her so badly that she thought she would die, including injuries inflicted when he hit her in the face with the butt of his rifle.

She said: “He was angry about something I said and he started to beat me. I thought I was going to die and begged him not to kill me. I was also terrified for my daughters. He hit me in the face with the butt of his rifle. He hit me in the face, in the eyes, on the arm and on the shoulder.

“I was naked, and my hands were handcuffed. He tied me up in a fetal position using nylon rope that he used for hunting. He then raped me. While he was doing that, he cut me with a machete on the breasts. He then said he was going to kill all of us when he got back and he left the house.

“I tried everything to free myself, I used a teaspoon and hairpin to try and open the handcuffs and called my daughters, but we could not open it.

“I managed to get the rifle and pointed it at the doorway when he came in. I told him not to come in but he attacked me anyway, and during the scuffle, the gun went off and he was shot.”

Now she has been arrested and placed in investigative custody for the murder of her husband at their home in the district of Dosemealti of the southern Turkish city of Antalya on the night of 7th January.

When police turned up, they confirmed that she was naked and handcuffed and her husband’s dead body was lying nearby, which has now been taken to a morgue.

Prosecutors meanwhile have ordered her to be placed in custody as the investigation continues.

She said: “I did not want him to die, despite everything, but I had no choice. If he didn’t die then my two daughters and I would have been killed.”

Meanwhile, a petition has been organised on Change.org (https://bit.ly/2LBWMV5) with hundreds of people joining the online campaign #MelekİpekSerbestBırakılsın calling for her to be released so she can care for her traumatised daughters.