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Landmark court win for British woman who claimed she was raped by bartender in Greece

The alleged rape happened in the seaside town of Parga on the west coast of Greece

Flora Thompson
PA
Tuesday 13 February 2024 12:55 EST
The Greek, right, and the European flags wave under the ancient Acropolis hill in Athens
The Greek, right, and the European flags wave under the ancient Acropolis hill in Athens (Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

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A British woman who claimed she was raped by a bartender while on holiday has won a complaint against the Greek authorities at the European Court of Human Rights.

According to court documents, the woman, who is referred to as Ms X, was aged 18 at the time of the alleged incident in 2019.

The bartender, who she met in the seaside town of Parga on the west coast of Greece, claimed the woman consented to having sex.

Judges in Strasbourg highlighted ā€œsignificant shortcomingsā€ as they found Greek authorities breached articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights because there had not been an effective investigation into the allegations and the ā€œcriminal proceedings had fallen short of the required standardsā€.

The womanā€™s lawyer, Michael Polak, said she was ā€œdelightedā€ with the judgment, which he described as ā€œmonumentalā€, adding that she hopes her ā€œordeal and her fighting this case will stop other women from having to go through what she didā€.

Mr Polak, director of Justice Abroad, which offers legal representation and advice for British people navigating foreign justice systems, told the PA news agency the woman was brought face to face with the alleged perpetrator in the police station, ā€œsubjected to medical procedures which were not properly explained to herā€ and ā€œkept totally in the darkā€ about progress in the investigation ā€“ which police later dropped.

Branding it a ā€œsystemic failureā€ rather than an isolated case, Mr Polak said: ā€œWe hope that this decision will spur the Greek authorities to change how they treat victims of sexual offences because Greece is obviously a place where lots of young women travel to and we hope they donā€™t suffer the same treatment.ā€

The judgment said: ā€œThe court, without expressing an opinion on the guilt of the accused, finds that the failure of the investigative and judicial authorities to adequately respond to the allegations of rape shows that they did not submit the case to the careful scrutiny required for them to properly discharge their positive obligations under the conventionā€¦

ā€œThe court thus concludes that the failure of the investigative and judicial authorities to adequately respond to the allegations of rape in the present case amount to a violation of the positive obligations of the state under articles 3 and 8 of the convention.ā€

The ā€œintimate natureā€ of the complaint, the womanā€™s young age and the ā€œfact that she claimed to have been raped while on holiday in a foreign countryā€ were all factors which ā€œcalled for a correspondingly sensitive approach on the part of the authoritiesā€, according to the court.

ā€œFollowing the submission of the applicantā€™s complaint, the investigating authorities did not take measures to prevent her further traumatisation and did not take sufficient account of her needs. They did not take any measures to inform her of her rights as a victim, such as the right to legal assistance or counselling and psychological support, the right to receive information and the right to object to the interpretation.

ā€œFurthermore, the investigating authorities did not take adequate measures to mitigate what was clearly a distressing experience for the applicant, such as the interview, the direct confrontation with the accused, the identification procedure and the medical examination, which should have been subject to more careful assessmentā€¦

ā€œIn addition, neither the prosecution nor the court analysed the circumstances of the case from the perspective of gender-based violence. They failed to explore the available possibilities for establishing all the surrounding circumstancesā€¦ and to take account of the particular psychological factors involved in rape cases such as the present one, and to make a context-sensitive assessment of the credibility of the various statements.

ā€œThere was no serious attempt to clarify the discrepancies or to assess the applicantā€™s state of mind and personal circumstances.

ā€œThose elements, in addition to the manner in which they assessed the forensic report, which did not actually contradict the applicantā€™s version of events, were not isolated errors but significant shortcomings,ā€ the judgment added.

The claimant was not awarded compensation or legal costs because her claim was lodged too late, the court said.

The Greek government and police have been contacted for comment.

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