Abused and assaulted on our Turkish HOLIDAY L HEL FROM; ANATOLIA: Family tell how their pounds 2,000 dream break turned into total disaster.

Byline: Michael Corley

A FAMILY has told how a dream holiday in the sun turned into two-week nightmare which ended up with one of their children being hit by another guest.

Michelle and David Browns, from Ash Green, near Coventry, have described how they were abused and insulted by other holidaymakers.

They also say their hotel was filthy, with human faeces in swimming pools and changing rooms.

Mum-of-two Michelle spent more than pounds 2,000 booking the dream break in Anatolia, Turkey, after her 33-year-old husband David was made redundant a few months ago.

The Browns, who live in Wheelwright Lane, said their problems started within a few days of arriving at the start of June, when David and Michelle went to the hotel's beach bar.

Michelle, who worked as a holiday rep in the 1990s, said: "I'm a fairly big girl but I dress conservatively.

"When I noticed the men pointing at me and doing gestures about my size, I couldn't believe it.

"I was ready to shake it off as a bit of banter at first but they kept doing it and even involved the staff - right in front of me."

On the fifth day Kelsey, aged two, was feeling under the weather so Michelle took her to the doctor.

He sent her to hospital saying there was a problem with her lungs but doctors at the hospital said she had tonsillitis and wanted money to treat her.

When Michelle became suspicious, staff said they would keep a drip in her arm until her insurance company settled the case. After leaving the hospital without treatment, Kelsey was fine the next day.

By the time the couple's five-yearold son, Kieran, was attacked on June 14 - towards the end of their stay - the couple say they were close to breaking point.

Michelle added: "David and I were sitting with a nice Scottish couple.

"We saw Kieran and his friend who were playing hide-and-seek run past a Russian family that were near us. Before we knew it, the lady got up and whacked Kieran and his friend across the head. They both fell to the hard-tiled floor, crying."

When David objected, the Russians started laughing. Incensed, he had to be restrained.

The 36-year-old said: "I was so upset that someone could just do that to my child for no apparent reason. It's not like they were messing about, they were just playing a little ga me."

Michelle added: "When I went to talk to the woman, I could see she was lunging towards me.

"The hotel manager then came out but he could only speak Russian. In the meantime, another British couple came and told me that their fouryear-old child had also been hit by a Russian."

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A holiday rep arrived after they called tour operators Thomas Cook.

She accompanied the couple to a meeting with another of the hotel's managers, who told them they should leave for their own safety.

The venue accommodates about 2,000 guests, three-quarters of whom were Russian, according to Michelle.

She added: "I just burst into tears. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Because we only had a day or two of our holiday left by this stage, we decided to stay.

"That's when they started intimi-datinus - pointing and staring.

"We basically ended up hiding in our room for the rest of the time."

Since then, she's had diarrhoea for almost two weeks after picking up a mystery bug.

CAPTION(S):

NIGHTMARE BREAK... Michelle Brown, husband David and children Kieran and Kelsey. The family from Ash Green had a holiday from Hell in Turkey. Picture: Mark Radford