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The 19-year-old British girl, who was convicted of lying to police after she said she was raped last year in Ayia Napa, says her attackers behaved like animals.
In a recent interview with The Sun, the teenager gave a new account of her ordeal in Cyprus, vowing to fight on and seek justice.
The British teen was sentenced to probation earlier this month after she was found guilty in December on public mischief charges in connection with rape allegations she had made against a group of Israeli teens back in July.
A Paralimni court found that the rape accuser, who ended up as a defendant in a public mischief trial, had lied to police and further attempted to mislead the court over an “imaginary rape” according to Cypriot Judge Michalis Papathanasiou.
But her defence insisted that the girl, who was 18 years old at the time of the complaint, had her rights violated by police investigators who refused access to legal counsel. They further argued that their client was coerced into retracting the allegations and that she did nor receive a fair trial.
I told the truth. The fight has just begun
The girl told The Sun that she is currently fighting her conviction. Her lawyers have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in Cyprus while the case could also reach the European Court of Human Rights.
“I told the truth. The fight has just begun,” she said.
The teen also gave a new description of the alleged incident in an Ayia Napa hotel room on July 17, where she said she was violated by a group of Israelis in their late teens. Local police quickly arrested a dozen suspects who were subsequently released days later, after police said the girl had filed a false rape claim.
She then said she managed to get out of the situation, which lasted about 20 minutes, adding that she had no idea how many had raped her
“They were lining up, excited, talking and shouting in Hebrew. I was trying to fight them off but I just couldn’t,” she told The Sun.
The girl found herself in the hotel room of an Israeli teen, with whom she had a holiday fling, after she agreed to go back with him on his last day before be would be flying back to Israel.
“I knew he was leaving the next day so we started kissing. About five minutes later, I heard the sound of the room door opening and turned around. He grabbed me and threw me on the bed. He pinned my shoulders down by kneeling on them, I couldn’t move,” she said.
According to The Sun, she said twelve Israelis went in the room and came over to the bed, with some of them grabbing her ankles, some holding her down, even ripping her swimsuit.
“I was trying to cross my legs all the time and every time I did, Sam would get angry. He grabbed one of my knees himself at one point. Then they took it in turns,” she said.
She then said she managed to get out of the situation, which lasted about 20 minutes, adding that she had no idea how many had raped her.
“I don’t know how many of the 12 raped me. You don’t count, you couldn’t count,” she said while calling them “a pack of animals - a pack of wolves.”
The teen also told The Sun she had spent close to five weeks in jail in Nicosia, awaiting trial. She said she spent hours reading in her jail cell, sitting by the door and trying to catch some light from the hallway after lights out. Her lawyers later managed to bail her out on condition she would report to a police station and remain in the country.
She remained adamant that police investigators had forced her into a confession, alleging that an officer became very aggressive including when she questioned the wording of her retraction statement.
“He just lost it and shouted, ‘No! You write what I tell you to write!’” she said.
“I knew straight away I’d done something really, really wrong by signing it. I was panicking by now and I told a social worker in the police station what had happened. But she just said, ‘There’s nothing you can do now,’” the teen said.
Cypriot police have denied coercion allegations with the judge last month saying he had found the police officers to be reliable witnesses for the prosecution, while he said the defendant was trying to mislead the court.
