Men planned ‘very bad and aggressive’ orgy with British woman who accused them of gang rape, court hears

A group of young Israeli men were “aggressively” planning to have sex with a 19-year-old British woman on the night she said they gang-raped her in Ayia Napa, a Cypriot court has heard.

The men were heard plotting in a “very bad way” to “do orgies” with the teenager, the court in Paralimni was told.

The woman is on trial after being charged with public mischief for allegedly falsifying the claim that she was gang-raped at a hotel at the party resort in July.

The offence carries a prison sentence of up to a year.

She has pleaded not guilty and said she was coerced into signing a confession and withdrawing the criminal complaint.

The woman, whose identity cannot be revealed unless she is found guilty, was imprisoned for four and a half weeks in a prison in the capital Nicosia that has been criticised for overcrowding and degrading treatment.

She was released on bail at the end of August.

The teenager had made a criminal complaint to police officers, and the group of Israeli men were all arrested on 17 July.

Five of them were freed on 25 July after no evidence was found linking them to the case, while the remaining seven were released three days later after police said the woman retracted the rape allegations.

Her lawyers say she was raped and her retraction should not be allowed to be used as evidence because investigators exerted pressure on her and threatened her and her friends with arrest.

The allegation has been strongly denied by Cypriot authorities, who claim the teenager voluntarily admitted in writing to falsely accusing the Israelis.

The young woman, who appeared at Famagusta District Court on Wednesday, burst into tears when the judge adjourned her trial until later this month.

Her lawyers allege members of the Israeli group planned to have sex with her.

Ritsa Pekri, defending, read a statement from a member of the Israeli group about the night the woman claims she was raped.

He said he saw the group outside their accommodation and asked whether they would be going to a club later.

“They said they were going to stay in our flat because the English girl was coming there later and they were going to f*** her – all of them,” he said.

“They were talking about it and laughing, saying they were going to do orgies with her. They were saying this in a very bad and aggressive way and they looked like they were ready – all of them – to f*** her that night.”

The young woman, who was supported by her mother during the trial, followed proceedings with the help of an interpreter, nodding or shaking her head as she heard the evidence.

Ms Pekri also questioned one of the investigating officers, Andreas Nikolettis, about the examination of the Israelis’ mobile phones.

The court heard that material from only five of the 11 devices seized had been provided to the teenager’s lawyers, with no videos showing her engaged in group sex.

A video from the day of the incident showed the woman with one person as others tried to enter a room before being told to get out, the court heard.

It was said one of the young men’s phones contained film clips of other young women having sex with unknown men.

The woman has not been able to return to the UK due to her surrendering travel documents to police and having to appear at a Nicosia police station every week.

“We say a rape did occur and there has been an investigation which falls well below the proper standards of investigation,” said British human rights lawyer Michael Polak after the hearing.

“She obviously just wants to go home. She was suffering from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] after the incident and we have got a psychologist for her.”

The lawyer, from Justice Abroad, a legal aid group providing help to the teen’s family, said the teen has missed out on her place at university.

The trial has been adjourned to 15 October when it is expected to carry on for three days.

On Tuesday, Mr Polak told The Independent she was held in the women’s section of Nicosia prison where nine inmates are placed in one cell.

The barrister said: “The process by which they obtained a retraction statement from a vulnerable and young girl who had obviously suffered a lot was very worrying. She was kept in the police station for a long time overnight without access to a lawyer or without any other support.

“This goes against what one would expect the protocols to be in regards to sexual offences. This ordeal has been very difficult for their family because they thought their daughter was coming somewhere safe where she would be protected if anything happened. It has been difficult for her having suffered such a terrible experience to remain here away from her family.”

Her alleged assailants, who had been on holiday in Cyprus, have denied any allegation of assault and have since returned to Israel.

They were reunited with their parents in Israel’s Ben Gurion airport and were filmed chanting “am Yisrael chai” (the people of Israel live), and “the Brit is a whore”, according to The Times of Israel.

Prosecutor Adamos Demosthenous said: “There are no grounds to accuse the police of a bad investigation.”

Additional reporting by Press Association