I was forced into retracting rape claim by Cyprus police, says Briton

A BRITISH teenager who says she was gang-raped by Israeli tourists in a beach resort in Cyprus told a court today that she was forced to sign a retraction by Cypriot police after they wrote it for her.

During a three-hour cross-examination, the 19-year-old said the statement was written in such broken English that “there is not one sentence that an English person would write. It does not make grammatical sense. It isn’t in proper English, it’s in Greek English. I’m a very well-educated person, I got into university with an unconditional offer, so there’s no way I would write something like this.”

The young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed in July that she was raped by up to a dozen Israeli men in a hotel room in the party resort of Ayia Napa.

Ten days later, she signed a retraction, which her legal team insists was made under duress after she was questioned by Cypriot police for eight hours without a lawyer.

She is on trial for “causing public mischief” by allegedly fabricating the rape claim. The Israeli men may sue her if she is convicted.

She told the court in Paralimni that police had promised her that she would be released and allowed to return to the UK if she signed the retraction.

“The officer said he had spoken to the Israelis and he had agreed that they would go home, and I would go home and that would be the end of it.” But instead of being set free, she was arrested and taken to a prison in Nicosia, the island’s capital, where she spent more than a month in a cell with other women before being bailed.

Shortly after signing the statement on July 27, she had a panic attack in the police station, brought on by the PTSD that psychologists say she is suffering from as a result of the alleged gang rape. “I was really, really stressed and I was crying. I was in a state. I was 18 and I was suffering from PTSD. I was trapped in there. They made me sign things I didn’t understand,” she said.

She accused Det Sgt Marios Christou, one of the investigating officers, of shouting at her and intimidating her. The trial continues.