Update 17 October 2019: First Day of Trial for British Teen in Cyprus After Reporting Group Rape

JUSTICE ABROAD

“Here When You Need Us”

First Day of Trial for British Teen in Cyprus After Reporting Group Rape

Justice Abroad is assisting the British teenager and her family in this matter.  At the hearing which took place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week at Famagusta District Court,  the teenager was represented by an expert legal team assembled by Justice Abroad comprising of Lewis Power QC, a top barrister from Church Court Chambers at the English Bar of the senior rank of Queen’s Counsel, Cypriot lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou, an experienced human rights advocate, and Ritsa Pekri, a criminal law expert.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Court heard evidence from a number of witnesses. When the witness Police Detective Marios Christou was called to give evidence, he attempted to exhibit the retraction statement of 28 July 2019. This was objected to on the basis that it was obtained under duress or other circumstances rendering it unreliable.  The Court then moved into the voire dire, trial within a trial, where the retraction statement and the circumstances under which it was taken are being examined. Mr Christou was asked a number of questions by the defence team and he stated that he did not seize communications evidence from the phones that had been seized from the Israeli youths because he said that he prohibited by constitution to have a look and never investigates this type of communication. It is understood that this is not a correct understanding of the law in Cyprus. It was also put to Mr Christou that it was unusual to take a statement from someone at 1.15am after they had spent almost 7 hours in a police station but he did not accept this. Officer Nicolettis gave evidence that he ‘never suspected she was not telling the truth and always treated her as a victim’ and that ‘he had no reason to question what she was saying’.  He stated, as he had at the last day of this hearing, that the video concerning 17 July 2019, the date of the rape, shows the accused with one suspect and that other persons were trying to enter, and the accused tells them to get out.

The teenager was called to give evidence and stated that she agreed to go with Officers Christou and Nicolettis at around 5.30pm on the evening of 27 July 2019 because the female Officer she had a good relationship with told her to go to clarify matters with them and that this female Officer was unavailable that day. She thought that this would be a quick journey to the police station at Ayia Napa after which she would be home to have dinner with her mother, however she was taken to Paralimni Police station in a car with locked doors and that when she arrived there she was not allowed to leave. The teenaged describes an ordeal of over 8 hours in which was subject to quick-fire questioning and aggressive behaviour from Officer Christou, denied  access to a lawyer (contrary to European and Cypriot law), subject to threats that the Police would arrest her friends using international arrest warrants, and she was told that if she did not agree to retract her statement she would next see her mother when she appeared in court in handcuffs.  She also relayed how she was suffering with PTSD and panic attacks at the time and was on medication.

The teenager also gave evidence about how she texted her mother and friends stating that she had been denied a lawyer when she asked, with the text reading that she was told that she ‘may be entitled in UK but not in Cyprus’ and also that they had forced her to sign ‘false statements’. She also stated that she feared for her safety because of the behaviour of the Officer and vividly described having a panic attack during the interrogation, because of her PTSD,  and trying to leave by trying to run out of the police station but that she couldn’t get out as the doors were locked. The teenager also gave evidence as to the fact that she had PTSD at the time and that even a man coming within a metre of her at this point would make her feel threatened and that the way Detective Marios Christou was approaching her and shouting at her to stop crying made her felt very threatened. It was put to the teenager by the Prosecution that she did not have PTSD at the time although it is unclear what factual basis they have for this assertion.  

 In regard to the retraction statement she stated ‘They made me make the retraction statement’ a number of times and stated that this statement was dictated to her by Mr Christou. She pointed to certain texts messages which she said show that the retraction statement was not freely drafted by someone who is a native English speaker. For example, the statement is said to have been written ‘on [the teenager’s] own free will’, with this incorrect phraseology being used twice and it also provides that on the night of the rape she ‘discovered them recording [her] doing sexual intercourse’.  The teenaged was asked when you said you were raped were you telling the truth? To which she responded, ‘I was raped’.

The teenager’s friend, a psychology graduate form Leeds University, gave evidence that she was worried when she received the group messages from the teenager and that she was in contact with Jacob who had been in Cyprus at the same time as them, to make sure he was safe. She also stated that when Detective Marios Christou took her statement previously he had added false prejudicial information about the amount the teenager and her friends had had to drink on the day of the rape and that while he was out of the room she went around the desk to the computer that the statement was typed up on and deleted the offending paragraphs.

Justice Abroad’s Michael Polak has stated that ‘We are pleased by the way that the defence witnesses gave their evidence to explain what happened on the 27/28th.Their accounts are strongly supported by the communication evidence.  In the 3 hours that the Prosecution was cross-examining the teenager she answered all question fully and explained the intense pressure she was feeling as a 18 year old  suffering from PTSD and how this led to her signing the retraction statement when she was put under intense pressure by the Police Detective. We remain hopeful that justice will be done for our client’.

The trial has been adjourned until 12pm on 1 November 2019 when the expert psychologist Dr Christine Tizzard will give evidence over a video link and legal submissions will be made for the exclusion of the retraction statement.  At this stage it will be for the Prosecution to prove that the retraction statement is reliable beyond reasonable doubt.

The family continues to raise funds for legal preparation and representation costs and the proper preparation for trial which includes the fees for the expert and translators. The Go Fund Me page www.gofundme.com/f/Help-Teen-Victim-Get-Justice-In-Cyprus is being used to raise these funds and the family wishes to thank all those from the United Kingdom, Israel, and the rest of the world who have contributed to the fundraising campaign at what is a difficult and unexpected time for them and in what they consider to be a very important fight for the teenager’s rights and her future.

Notes to Editors

Justice Abroad, www.justiceabroad.co.uk  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.

Lewis Power QC is a barrister who was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1990 and achieved the senior rank of Queen’s Counsel (QC) in 2011. He has a strong reputation for fighting difficult cases at trial and advising and advocating in matters with international and cross-jurisdictional elements.

Nicoletta Charalambidou is human rights lawyer with an expertise on European Union law and with a particular interest in victims and suspects rights in criminal procedures and discrimination in the administration of justice. She is also a member to the Legal Experts Advisory Panel of Fair Trials. 

Ritsa Pekri is a civil and criminal law lawyer working with Nicoletta Charalambidou LLC with strong experience in criminal cases and those matters involving human rights related issues.

Justice Abroad is also cooperating with KISA - Action for Equality, Support, Antiracism which is a national NGO active in the field of antidiscrimination and antiracism, including discrimination in the administration of justice and a human rights violations watchdog working in the field of victim and suspects rights under EU law.