Media Statement: British Teen Imprisoned in the Republic of Cyprus After Reporting Group Rape
Justice Abroad is assisting the family of a British teenager who has been remanded in Nicosia Prison and is facing trial in Cyprus after reporting a gang rape in the town of Ayia Napa in the Republic of Cyprus.
Justice Abroad, www.justiceabroad.co.uk is a an organisation which has been set up to help those trying to find their way through foreign justice systems with all the associated hurdles that presents. To help such families with these dilemmas and many more, three experts, Michael Polak, a barrister with an international practice focussed on the assistance of foreign nationals in trouble around the world, David Swindle , a former Detective Superintendent who has worked on hundreds of murders and complex high profile investigations in the UK and abroad during his 34 years in the police, and David Walters MVO, a former British Diplomat with over thirty years’ experience having served in over a dozen countries around the world, have pooled their extensive experience. Justice Abroad is endeavouring to ensure that their client experiences a fair, transparent, and unbiased trial process in Cyprus.
Reports by the Cypriot Police that the teenager has voluntarily recanted her rape allegation are denied by the family. According to the family members, what in fact occurred, was that the teenager was taken by the Cypriot Police to the Police station at around 6.30pm whilst on medications. She was asked to provide a further statement in regard to the rape allegations. After providing a further written statement the Police Officer told her that he believed that she was lying about the allegations and that he wanted to help her. He told her to write a confession and that if she did not do so he would arrest her friends in Cyprus for conspiracy, naming the friends he would arrest if she refused. Justice Abroad understand that one of the text messages obtained by the Press provides contemporaneous evidence of this. The teenager requested a lawyer, but this was refused.
At this stage the teenager became very distressed and stated “you have to be fucking joking” before leaving the room crying. Upon returning to the room she was threatened to be charged with ‘swearing at a Police Officer’. Further pressure was placed upon her to write the confession despite her stating that she did not want to. The purported confession was dictated to her and she was told what to include in the statement with her been given a choice of reasons to include for why she made a criminal complaint of rape. After this there was a stand-off about signing the statement with the teenager refusing to sign the statement and the Police Officer telling her that she had to and that if she did not sign it he would arrest her but if she did she could return back to her hotel.
The teenager was also given another statement to sign and she refused to do so. Justice Abroad understands that the other text messages obtained by the Press also provides contemporaneous evidence of this. The teenager was charged at around 2.30am after being in the Police Station for 8 hours.
The family’s position is that the confession was obtained under oppression given the threats made to the teenager, that she was not cautioned, and that she was not given access to a lawyer as was her right under the Cypriot Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights. Further, the teenager was not told that she could leave the Police station nor given the option of leaving at any point.
It is also understood that unfortunately none of the proceedings at the Cypriot Police Station were recorded aurally or by video.
Justice Abroad can be contacted on contact@justiceabroad.co.uk about the above matter or other similar situations.