Hiya Napa: Brits are back
Safety fears as revellers go wild in ‘lawless’ resort
a BRITISH girl aged around 20 lies unconscious on a stretcher as paramedics tend to her and her worried pals look on.
She is then whisked away in an ambulance in the early hours after drinking heavily in the infamous party town of Ayia Napa in Cyprus.
Another young girl lies seemingly unconscious on a road in the resort’s hedonistic clubbing area.
Nearby, a young lad bangs his head repeatedly on a signpost before a friend helps him up.
Just a two-minute walk away is the Pambos Napa Rocks hotel, where a 19-year-old English girl claimed she was gang-raped by 12 Israeli men in 2019.
“Ayia Napa has actually got worse since that case,” said resort taxi driver Angel Pittiri, 42. “This year so far is the worst I’ve seen it in 20 years.”
The Pambos Napa Rocks is fully open again post-Covid and thousands flock to its wild all-day pool parties on Thursdays.
Elsewhere in the early hours, teens appear to inhale potentially lethal laughing gas, illegal but sold readily in and outside clubs, and strip bar touts whisper that women inside also offer sex.
Cheap drinks offers are advertised everywhere along Bar Street and the square where bars and clubs remain open all night.
Authorities are re-branding the town and “enjoy respect Ayia Napa” signs are everywhere. This month Ayia Napa’s municipality unveiled a new code of ethics in an effort to transform the resort.
But nothing appears to have changed since July 2019, when the girl claimed she was attacked.
After the girl reported it she was wrongly found guilty of making it up. She won an appeal this year after it emerged police coerced her while grilling her without a lawyer.
The case was last week taken to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to make Cypriot authorities re-investigate. The 12 Israelis were not charged and went home. Police are rarely seen in the party area and it has fallen on taxi drivers to ensure the safety of young women walking back to their hotels alone.
Young men are often seen lurking in the shadows, we are told, and set off to follow them.
“We instantly shout to the young lady if she is alright and if she knows where she is going, and then the person following her will stop,” said Angel.
He has worked in the resort for 26 years, 21 as a taxi driver and five in bars and security.
He said: “It’s lawless. The level of drinking, the fighting, the safety.
“Sometimes these young people are like animals.
“But where are the police? We are acting as security much of the time. There’s fighting, violence,
people smashing things up.” Asked about the campaign to clean up the town, he said: “It’s bulls***. Just take one look at what goes on down there on the strip.”
Nitrous oxide – laughing gas – inhaled from balloons is illegal.
But the streets at night are filled with revellers apparently taking the gas freely. There is even a Balloon Kiosk selling balloons for €3 each.
In clubs, women walk around carrying canisters with balloons attached, offering them up to already intoxicated youngsters.
Nitrous oxide, which gives a brief high, was linked to 56 deaths between 2001 and 2020 in the UK, and is subject to a government review. Lewis Power QC represented the 19-year-old who claimed she was attacked in 2019.
The lawyer said: “Those who one would expect to have learned their lesson have not reacted in a positive way to enact the changes that were so desperately needed.
“It is abundantly clear that the treatment of young girls has not changed a jot with the lawlessness carrying on and no safeguarding to these young girls on holiday in areas such as Ayia Napa.” There is no mistaking that British teens are still being targeted by the lure of cheap drinks and sex in the resort.
Cars drive around Bar Street trying to entice young men for a lap dance at their associated club.
Outside one of them, a male tout tries to bring punters in, saying quietly that they offer striptease and oral and full sex.
At the bars, revellers can fill themselves with cheap booze, with offers as cheap as €12 for a one-hour free bar or just £25 for 12 spirits and mixers. London-born Dasos Patsias, 61, has worked on the taxis in the resort for 40 years.
“I think it must be postCovid, these kids are just going wild and it’s dangerous,” he said. The British lot just have no respect for anyone. Every night you’ll get someone in a cab asking where they can get cocaine or weed. You worry for these kids.
“The council’s doing nothing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
A spokesman for the Ayia Napa Municipality said: “A lot of tourists are travelling to Ayia Napa.
‘Enjoy, Respect Ayia Napa’ launch began to be promoted just a few weeks ago and needs time to be implemented.
“We had discussions with the police and from July 1 the resort will be patrolled by increasing numbers of officers in the main streets, the cosmopolitan area and the entire territory of the resort.
The tourists’ safety is on high priority of the municipality.”
It is the worst I have seen it for 20 years... where are the police? We act as security aNGel PIttIrI TAXI DRIVER IN TOURIST HOTSPOT AYIA NAPA