Serdar Caliskan and wife Ilknur
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The family of a man killed by his wife while she was sleepwalking has blasted Victoria’s Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) after she walked free because a murder charge could not be proven.

Serdar Caliskan, 50, was stabbed to death by his wife Ilknur, 47, while the pair were on a camping trip in 2023, however the murder charge was dropped due to Ms Caliskan’s sleep disorder.

Mr Caliskan’s family told 9News they have been in “hell” since his death and believe the justice system has let them down.

Serdar Caliskan and wife Ilknur
Serdar Caliskan, 50, was stabbed to death by his wife Ilknur, 47. (Pictured) (9News)

That anger stretches all the way to Mr Caliskan’s homeland in Turkey, where his mother and siblings say they weren’t warned Ms Caliskan’s murder charge would be dropped.

“I think the OPP have let us down, they let down the family,” Mr Caliskan’s niece Ceren Gover said.

”We are not being informed, they ignore us. They cut us off,” his brother Muzaffer added.

The husband and wife were camping at Mount Disappointment in Victoria’s north in September 2023 when Ms Caliskan stabbed her husband in the heart.

She was initially charged with murder but later proved a sleeping disorder made her sleepwalk out of the car-top tent, down a ladder and to a table in the bush where she grabbed a knife and stabbed her husband to death.

Ilknur’s murder charge was dropped after she was found to have a sleeping disorder. (Nine / Supplied)

Mr Caliskan’s family claim in the 26 years the pair were married, his wife’s sleep disorder was never mentioned.

“His parents had never heard of this,” Gover said.

“They lived in a house together for over a month. No mention of this.”

Mr Caliskan’s family are calling for restrictions to be put on people like Ms Caliskan who are freed.

“Our concern is the community and her kids who live in the same house as her,” Gover said.

The OPP told 9News the decision to drop a murder charge was not done lightly.

“After carefully reviewing the opinions of several experts, it was determined that the elements of murder could not be made out beyond reasonable doubt,” the OPP said in a statement.

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