Rape case fiasco and a young life in tatters

EVERY parent will be appalled at the harrowing ordeal of the British teenager facing jail in Cyprus after she complained of being gang-raped by up to 12 young Israeli youths in the holiday resort of Ayia Napa.

From the moment she reported the alleged assault in July, to her conviction this week for making ‘public mischief’, she has been dismissed by every representative of Cypriot officialdom as an immoral, vexatious liar.

In her first interview, she admitted having had consensual sex with one of the youths in a hotel room. Others then barged in, held her down and raped her, she said.

But during a seven-hour interrogation – unrecorded and with no lawyer present – the police allegedly browbeat her into retracting her statement.

She claims she was too terrified to refuse. ‘I thought I wouldn’t get out of there alive,’ she said.

In a grotesque turnaround, she then became the defendant, and was charged with maliciously fabricating the story.

The trial judge was openly hostile, dismissing all defence witnesses (including an eminent Cypriot forensic scientist) as ‘unreliable’, while describing all those called by the prosecution as ‘credible’.

To those in court, a guilty verdict was never in doubt. The traumatised victim now faces serving time in a foreign prison – with no prospect of an appeal for two years or more.

An intelligent middle-class girl from the Midlands, who had a sheaf of university offers to choose from when she returned home from her working holiday, her world is now in shreds.

She has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, experiences panic attacks and hallucinations, and was sleeping for 18 or 20 hours a day because of a condition called hypersomnia.

To compound her misery, a video of her having sex with one of the suspects is now swilling around on pornography websites.

To say this case raises troubling questions would be a gross understatement. The Foreign Office has made representations but far more must be done. Whatever took place in that room, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab must intervene personally to ensure this tortured girl isn’t sent to prison next week. She needs to be at home, where she can recover and pick up the pieces of her life.

Furthermore, her appeal should be rushed forward, so a higher court can rule quickly on what looks to be a clear miscarriage of justice.

As tourism makes up 15 per cent of the island’s GDP and the UK provides easily the largest number of visitors, Mr Raab should have considerable leverage.

This is an early test of his mettle. And one that he must not fail.

A young girl’s mental health – indeed her entire future – hangs by a thread.