GAZIANTEP - Mehmet Sedat Ocak, who brought Rachael Lloyd of Britain to his house in southeastern province of Gaziantep to marry with her, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for keeping a girl under legal age by force and statutory rape.
Ocak and his lawyer Yasar Saglam attended the hearing at the High Criminal Court no: 3 in Gaziantep on Thursday.
During the hearing, Saglam requested the court to investigate whether Lloyd came to Turkey with her own consent.
The court delegation rejected the request.
Following final defense of suspect Ocak, the court delegation sentenced him to five years and three months in prison for keeping a girl under legal age and statutory rape.
Ocak will be able to apply to the higher court to change the verdict.
Meanwhile, Ocak told reporters following the hearing, ''Rachael and her family will come to Turkey on May 17, 2004. I am in love with her and we will get married. When they come to Turkey, our families will set a date for our wedding.''
Ocak, 24, met British Lloyd, 14, when she was vacationing with her grandmother in the western resort of Marmaris in the summer of 2002. Lloyd was reported missing from her home in Wrexham, north Wales, on December 3, 2002, and was found in Ocak's home in Gaziantep after a search by Interpol and Turkish police.
(UK-AÖ) 26.02.2004