Soccer player admits to smothering 5-year-old son to death after blaming it on coronavirus: 'I never loved him'
A Turkish soccer player has confessed to suffocating his five-year-old son with a pillow in a hospital because he “didn’t love him”. Central defender Cevher Toktas admitted to the crime eleven days after his son Kasim died. Doctors at Dortcelik Children's Hospital in the city of Bursa, northwestern Turkey, had believed the child died from natural causes.
According to local media reports, 32-year-old Toktas took the child to the hospital on April 23 since both of them were suffering from high fever and breathing difficulties. They were put in quarantine together as doctors feared a coronavirus infection. Later that day the central defender, who has played in Turkey’s top-flight Super Lig, called for help and informed medical staff that Kasim was struggling to breathe. The young boy was soon shifted to the intensive care unit, where he died less than two hours later. Since death due to breathing difficulties is common in the Covid-19 case, doctors reportedly did not suspect any foul play and ruled his death as natural.
Kasim was buried the next day. His father, Toktas, even posted an image of his son's grave with a heartfelt message on social media, writing: “Do not rely on the world." However, a new twist in the case came when Toktas reportedly went to a local police station to hand himself over to the authorities as he confessed Kasim’s death was not natural, he murdered him.
It has been reported that the player who most recently played for Bursa Yildirim Spor, told officials that he smothered the boy with a pillow when they were alone in the hospital room. “I pressed a pillow on my son who was lying on his back. For 15 minutes, I pressed down on the pillow without lifting it up. My son was struggling during that time. After he stopped moving, I lifted the pillow. Then I yelled for doctors to help to draw any suspicions away from me,” Toktas said in a statement to the authorities.
He also allegedly told officials that he was not suffering from any “any mental issues” and the only reason he killed Kasim was he “didn’t love him” and had never loved his youngest son “since he was born”. As per reports, Toktas was soon taken into custody after his confession. He will be tried for 'murdering a close relative' and would a life sentence if found guilty. Meanwhile, for investigation purposes, officials have now reportedly ordered the exhumation of Kasim’s body who was buried in a makeshift grave shortly after his death.
In a similar kind of incident that happened in January in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, where a father smothered his one-month-old son to death with a pillow while the child slept. As per reports, Teshawn Watkins killed Kaseem Watkins in late January after the child’s mother fed him and put him back to bed when he had seemed fine.
The 27-year-old Teshawn was arrested on 30 January and charged with murder, manslaughter, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child.