Israelis ‘joked about group sex with UK teen’ on night she claimed she was raped

A GROUP of Israelis planned to have sex with a British teenager, who claims she was gang raped, in a “very bad and aggressive way”, a court in Cyprus has heard.

The 19-year-old woman, who cannot be named, denies causing public mischief by allegedly making a false claim that she was attacked at an Ayia Napa hotel on July 17.

A dozen young Israeli men were arrested, but were eventually all freed when she retracted her statement.

Her lawyers say she was raped and that her retraction should not be admissible as evidence because investigators exerted pressure, threatening her and her friends with arrest.

Cypriot authorities strongly deny that the statement was coerced, saying that she volunteered it in writing.

The teenager, who is on bail but cannot leave the island, appeared at Famagusta District Court in Paralimni yesterday.

Supported by her mother, she followed proceedings with the help of an interpreter and broke down in tears when Judge Michalis Papathanasiou adjourned her trial until later this month.

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

Ritsa Pekri, defending, read a statement from an Israeli witness about the night she claims she was raped.

He said he saw them outside of 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,” he added.

Ms Pekri also questioned one of the investigating officers, Andreas Nikolettis, about the ex

On trial: the British woman amination of the Israelis’s mobile phones.

The court heard only material from five of the 11 devices seized has been provided to the teenager’s lawyers, with no videos showing her engaged in group sex. Another video from the day of the incident showed the woman with one person as others tried to enter the room before being told to get out, while one of the youth’s phones contained film clips of other young women having sex with unknown men, it was said.

Speaking after the hearing, Michael Polak, director of the group Justice Abroad, which is assisting in the woman’s legal defence, said: “We say a rape did occur and there has been an investigation which falls well below the proper standards of investigation.”

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

Five of the arrested Israelis were freed on July 25 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.

She spent four and a half weeks in prison before she was granted bail at the end of August.

Mr Polak said: “She obviously just wants to go home. She was suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) after the incident.”

The trial was adjourned to October 15.