Supreme Court sends ‘pervert cop’ to jail

The Supreme Court handed down a two year prison sentence to a police officer, who initially got one year suspended for sexually assaulting a female nurse in his hotel room.

The attorney general’s office, which referred the case to the Supreme Court, had found that a one year prison sentence suspended for three years, which was handed down by a lower court in Nicosia, was inadequate.

According to the case, the 47-year-old police officer approached a 22-year-old female nurse back in 2013, asking her to care for his brother was facing mobility issues. She had been told that her duties would include bathing a man with disabilities and the pay was €30 on each visit.

Her first visit was scheduled at a hotel in the capital, where the nurse was told to report to a specific hotel room. But when she went inside, the woman noticed there was no other person in the room except the suspect, who locked the door behind him and appeared to have no disabilities.

According to media reports, the man paid the woman €30 and she proceeded to wash his body,while he later requested a number of acts that were described as "indecent" and the woman wanted to leave.

But the man told her he “did not finish” and asked her to come back, adding that other nurses did not protest to his requests.

Due to an underlying fear of rape, as she later told a Nicosia district judge, she consented to engaging in a sexual act with the man.

The convicted man allegedly had approached a number of retirement homes, according to dated reports in the media, where he would seek out young female nurses on the pretext that he wanted to hire them to care for his brother.

Other cases point to careful planning

In at least two separate cases, female nurses who went to his hotel room, found the suspect in his pajamas. He would allegedly ask the young nurses to undress them, wash him with their bare hands all over his body, including his genitalia. 

The Nicosia District Court handed the suspended sentence, citing the man’s family and professional situations as well as having no criminal background.

But the attorney general’s office said the sentence was“obviously insufficient” for the criminal offenses, citing that the officer was planning carefully the arrangement and execution of his plots where he would trick unsuspecting women and force them to play along. But no other plaintiffs were named in the case according to earlier reports.

The Supreme Court also said the police officer had a duty to uphold law and order, which entailed protecting citizens from behaviours such as his own.

The police officer, who was suspended from his duties throughout the trial, later went back on the job because the initial sentence was suspended.

But the Supreme e Court judges, who pointed out he had failed to be a role model for law-abiding citizens, ordered him to serve a two year prison sentence.

Last week, the officer reported himself to Nicosia Central Prisons where he was booked to carry out the sentence.