Cyprus rape case: British teenager accused of lying about attack criticises investigation in first TV interview

A British teenager found guilty of lying about being gang raped in Cyprus has said the local police forced her to withdraw her rape allegations in her first TV interview.

The 19-year-old woman, who is from Derbyshire, alleges she was sexually assaulted by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the party resort of Ayia Napa.

New details about the case have surfaced in an ITV documentary that includes interviews with an ex Home Office adviser, her mother, and friends who lived with her during the ordeal who have not previously spoken to the media.

David Gee, a former Detective Chief Superintendent who advised the government on policing, studied the evidence in the case and concluded local police failed to properly investigate the young woman’s rape allegations.

“It’s very serious if people are allowed to walk free without full exploration of the circumstances of the case,” Mr Gee said on the show. “From what I’ve read, I’m comfortable in saying that this case has not been investigated as thoroughly as it should have been.”

A judge at Famagusta District Court in Paralimni in January ruled the young woman, whose identity has not been revealed, had lied to police about the alleged assault on 17 July.

The 19-year-old, who spent four and a half weeks in a prison in the capital Nicosia over the summer, was handed a four-month prison term suspended for three years.

But the teen, who was trapped in Cyprus for almost five months, maintains she was forced by officers to sign a confession withdrawing the rape complaint.

“I can’t remember the exact feeling of hearing that,” the young woman says of the moment she realised the police did not believe her allegations of gang rape. “Just it was hours of me in and out of this state of literal panic attacks where I couldn’t breathe, because it’s just not the truth. It’s not. It’s not.”

The teenager, who is known as Emily in the documentary, added: ”There is no doubt in my mind that in the end, be it a year down the line, be it 50 years down the line. I will achieve justice.”

Jacob, a British man, who ran into the girl with a group of Israelis shortly after the alleged attack recalled coming across them.

“One of them had his arms over her shoulders as if to pull her close and the two were almost standing either side of her so she had nowhere to move,” he said. “So I said, ‘What are you doing?’ They didn’t reply and they started walking away. She’s crying.”

The dozen Israelis, aged between 15 and 20, were released without charge.

Charlotte, the alleged victim’s roommate, described how she found her friend after the saga, adding: “She was in such a traumatic state and like crying and bruises all over her body. It was a horrible sight.”

She continued: “She was scared what they were going to do. And we finally got her in the police car and she literally just curled in a ball with her head on my lap crying her eyes out.”

The alleged victim claimed lead investigating officer, Sergeant Marios Christou, pressured her into saying she had lied and also threatened to have both her and her friends arrested.

The teenager said after being in custody for more than six hours, she eventually agreed to pen a statement saying she had lied about the gang rape.

“He gave me word for word what he wanted me to write out and naturally in my brain, I would correct what he’s trying to say,” she said of Sergeant Christou. “So there’s one instance in the first line, something like, ‘at Ayia Napa’ — that’s what he wanted me to put. But naturally, I corrected that to, ‘in Ayia Napa’. And he was so angry that I had done that, he shouted at me and he made me scribble it out and then sign it to say I’d scribbled it out and then write, ‘at Ayia Napa’.”

Michael Polak, a British human rights lawyer who is director of Justice Abroad, a legal aid group providing help to the teen’s family, told The Independent there was “an alarming lack of any proper procedure and thorough investigation into her rape complaint”.

Mr Pollak added: “The programme also looks into the situation in which the teenager found herself when she was taken to the police station and kept there for over six hours without a lawyer or translator, and where she states that immense pressure was placed upon her to retract her allegation. This is not the only case which has been reported to us where such tactics have been used by the police.

“It is beyond belief that in Cyprus interrogations in a police station can take place without any video or audio recording and without a lawyer. This creates the perfect atmosphere for undue pressure to be placed upon those who are vulnerable.

“We believe that this programme will allow viewers to gain a fuller understanding as to what has taken place in this case and how the teenager’s dream trip to the Mediterranean quickly turned into a nightmare.”

Mr Pollak said he hopes the Cypriot Supreme Court will recognise the clear breaches of the teen’s rights under European Union law, European Human Rights Law, and Cypriot law when the matter comes before it later this year — adding that they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if justice cannot be achieved in Cyprus.

In October, a court heard the group of young Israeli men had been “aggressively” planning to have sex with the woman. The men were heard plotting in a “very bad way” to “do orgies” with the teenager, the court was told.

The police in Cyprus and Sergeant Christou have vehemently denied all allegations of misconduct.

ITV’s new documentary which is titled Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case will be broadcast on Tuesday at 10.45pm