Man orders car torched over breakup with teen girl

Two 23-year-old men have been remanded in custody in a Nicosia arson attack against a vehicle, whose owner says one of the suspects had an affair with his teenage daughter.

According to ReporterCY, two male suspects were arrested on Tuesday following an apparent arson attack in the early morning, around 4am, where a targeted vehicle and another car nearby were damaged. Nicosia fire fighters rushed to the scene and put out the fire.

The car owner, a car salesman from Nicosia, told police he suspected that behind the arson attack was a 23-year-old man, who had a relationship with his 16-year-old daughter.

Last March, things turned ugly as the suspect and two others physically assaulted the girl’s father, who did not approve of the affair. And recently, according to reports, the 23-year-old learned that the teen decided to go steady with another boy from school, who was later threatened by the suspect.

In a phone call to her father, while the girl was in Limassol with her dad over the weekend, the suspect threatened to burn down the entire car lot.

“Start driving and bring your daughter to me now or I will torch your cars, all of them, one by one,” the suspect reportedly told the teen’s father.

The second suspect admitted to police that he was the one who set the car on fire, citing fears that he would be evicted from his rental home that belongs to the main suspect’s mother.

He also told police he carried out the criminal act in exchange for €150 cash, paid by the main suspect who told him that the girl was “seeing someone else and it’s all her dad’s fault.”

The main suspect did not appear to cooperate with investigators during his detention while he denies any involvement in the arson attack. 

“Whatever I have to say I’ll say it in court,” he told cops.

The second suspect, who gave voluntary statements to police, was recorded by CCTV getting petrol from a gas station. 

Both suspects were remanded on Wednesday for eight days by a Nicosia District Court judge. The father also told authorities that the main suspect had been physically abusive to his daughter.