Israeli youths ‘plotted group sex’ with Briton accused of crying rape
A BRITISH teenager accused of making up a gang-rape in Cyprus wept while giving evidence yesterday.
The 19-year-old, who cannot be identified, said the 12 Israeli youths she blames for an alleged attack in Ayia Napa were plotting to have an orgy with her.
She said they targeted her at a hotel where she was having a holiday fling with one of their friends. She broke down in tears and appeared to have a panic attack yesterday in the dock when the perjury case was adjourned for two weeks for a review of the evidence.
Ayia Napa police initially arrested 12 Israeli teenagers. But they were released when the girl suddenly retracted her statement. Her defence team, which claims she is the victim of rape and a botched police investigation, say investigators pressured her to drop the claim to protect the resort’s reputation.
At Famagusta district court, ritsa Pekri read a witness statement from an Israeli youth who said he saw the accused teenagers before the alleged incident in July. The youth said: ‘They said they were going to stay at the apartment because the English girl was coming there later and they were going to f*** her – all of them.
‘They were boasting 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.’
Mrs Pekri pointed out to investigating officer Andreas Nikolettis that she had not been given any details of WhatsApp or text messages sent by the boys.
Under questioning, Mr Nicolettis admitted that the British woman’s mobile phone did not show she consented to group sex – as the Israeli youths had claimed.
He said one mobile phone video showed the youths trying to enter the bedroom as the defendant is being intimate with her lover. The
‘Boasting and laughing’
footage suggested they were ‘ not welcome and were told to leave’.
Five Israelis were freed on July 25 after police said no evidence was found linking them to the case.
The remaining seven were released three days later when investigators said the woman retracted the allegations. The defendant spent four and a half weeks in prison before winning bail at the end of August.
She lost her place at university, which she was due to take up last month, after being forced to surrender her travel documents to police and report to Nicosia police station weekly.
A 34-page report by a phone expert examining data retrieved from the youths’ phones was submitted to the court yesterday.
The defence team said it needed time to study the report and asked for the bail conditions to be relaxed so she could return home to the UK before the next hearing.
Her legal team told the court she had psychological problems, having been diagnosed over Skype by a top psychologist in Britain.
But the judge dismissed the request saying it was ‘too vague’ and ruled she must remain in Cyprus.
Michael Polak of Justice Abroad, a campaign group that has taken on her case, said: ‘She obviously just wants to go home. She is suffering from PTSD after the incident and we have got a psychologist for her.
‘She has pleaded not guilty and stayed here because she wants to see justice done.’
He criticised the police investigation into the rape claim, saying officers failed to examine key evidence.
Mr Polak claimed the girl was interviewed for more than five hours without the proper ‘legal assistance’ and that officers pressured her to retract by threatening her and her friends with arrest.
He said: ‘It’s amazing taking an 18-year- old to a police station at 8pm in the evening and then getting a retraction from her statement five or six hours later at 2am.
‘It is amazing that a country like Cyprus has no recordings of what happened in the police station.’
He said he feared there was pressure on the police to get rid of the rape allegation to protect the island’s tourism trade.
‘Towns like Ayia Napa, which rely on young people coming here, would collapse without tourism,’ he said.