Pizzakom: Mevlut Kilinc verbally abusive but not guilty of DV

A magistrate says the owner of a popular late-night Tassie pizza haunt called his wife a “fat cow” and threw rubbish on the floor to “shame her”, but did not assault her. Read the exclusive court report.

The owner of one of northern Tasmania’s most popular late-night pizza joints has been found not guilty of assaulting, emotionally abusing and intimidating his former wife.

But Launceston Magistrate Sharon Cure did find Pizzakom owner Mevlut Ergun Kilinc, 52, was generally verbally abusive and had high expectations that his wife Gulcan would wash his work clothes, clean and otherwise manage the household.

Ms Cure also found Ms Kilinc probably gave as good as she got in the shouting and name-calling stakes.

Pizzakom Launceston owner Mevlut Ergun Kilinc. Picture: Facebook

Mr Kilinc had previously denied all charges following a complaint by his wife of 20 years during a messy divorce.

Tasmania Police alleged on March 13 last year, Mr Kilinc used two hands to push Ms Kilinc following an argument, leaving her pressed against a wall.

It was further alleged that Mr Kilinc emotionally abused and intimidated her by “excessively monitoring her activities”, threatening to close down Pizzakom and leave her, financially controlling her, and abusing her by calling her names such as “fat cow” and “shopaholic”.

Ms Kilinc claimed that Mr Kilinc only provided her spending money of $200 per week and required her to furnish receipts as evidence of her spending.

Another claim by Ms Kilinc was that her husband threw rubbish on the floor of their kitchen and then threatened to take a picture and send it to her mother, as evidence of her slovenly habits, the court heard.

A triple-0 phone call was tendered to the court from the days following the alleged common assault, wherein Ms Kilinc called police for help following a nasty bust-up over her husband’s missing passport.

She told the operator she was looking for the passport but couldn’t find it, and the operator said she should lock herself in the bathroom with her children and flee out the window, the court was told.

However, under cross-examination, Ms Kilinc conceded she did know where his passport was, but she “didn’t go and get it because she was too scared”, Magistrate Sharon Cure told the court.

Ms Cure said concessions such as this – cross-examination also revealed Ms Kilinc did have access to a number of bank accounts, nullifying the claim she was only provided $200 a week – showed the complainant was generally evasive and prone to exaggeration.

While Mr Kilinc did admit to verbally abusing his wife, throwing rubbish on the floor and threatening to send a picture of the mess to her mother to “shame” her, and “screaming and yelling” during fights involving religion, house-cleaning and the washing of his work clothes, Ms Cure found the rancour frequently cut both ways.

Pizzakom Launceston. Picture: Google Street View

She accepted that Ms Kilinc frequently would open doors and windows to the house during arguments, so that the neighbours would hear and hopefully intervene to embarrass Mr Kilinc.

Ms Cure further accepted that Mr Kilinc had spoken of leaving his wife and selling his business as he was too old to keep working the labour-intensive job, but he had attempted to do so civilly.

She also accepted Mr Kilinc required his wife to furnish receipts as evidence of her spending, but this was in the context of Mr Kilinc being responsible for the outgoings of the business, as Ms Kilinc used company accounts for personal spending.

The pair are currently in the process of selling down their assets and dividing the spoils after going their separate ways, the court heard.

Ms Cure found that on the “balance of probability” Mr Kilinc may be verbally abusive towards Ms Kilinc in future and ordered he not “directly threaten or abuse” his ex-wife.