Jan 5, 2020 04:40 AM
(January 5, 2020) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...laims.html
EXCERPT: Multiple bruises found on a young British woman who alleged she was gang-raped on holiday in Cyprus leave 'no doubt' that she had suffered a violent assault, according to a pathologist [Marios Matsakis]. The student, who faces up to a year in jail after being found guilty of lying, insists she was held down and raped by up to 12 Israeli youths at a budget hotel in Ayia Napa.
Some 35 bruises found across the 19-year-old's legs, arms and buttocks are said to be consistent with her having suffered a violent sexual assault. Marks were also found around her knees and eyes. They were seen in a diagram, compiled by a pathologist who saw photographs of the injuries, in a Cypriot court as she was tried for public mischief.
However, the evidence was dismissed by the judge whose handling of the case before her conviction last week has come under fire in an escalating diplomatic row. Bruises on the teenager's torso are missing because, inexplicably, police took no pictures of her without her shirt on.
The girl's mother says her daughter is suffering from PTSD caused by the months of her legal ordeal, while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has voiced his 'serious concerns' over her treatment ahead of her sentencing on Tuesday. Her psychologist, Dr Christine Tizzard, fears the teenager will be at a heightened risk of suicide if she is jailed this week, the Sunday Times reported. Dr Tizzard added that the student is in urgent need of mental health care and is 'physically and mentally getting worse every day'.
[...] The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says she retracted her statement about the alleged rape only after pressure from detectives following ten hours of questioning which was not recorded or conducted in front of a lawyer. She then found herself in police custody and stranded on the Mediterranean island for five months charged with public mischief.
During her trial, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, who reduced the woman to tears on a number of occasions, dismissed evidence put forward by UK experts that supported her claim of being attacked and ruled she 'did not make a good impression, she did not tell the truth, and tried to mislead the court'. He did not hear from any of the woman's alleged attackers and was adamant he would not rule on whether she was raped or not, despite three men admitting they had sex with her.
[...] State pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous told the court that the British teenager bore no physical signs consistent with a serious sexual assault. He maintained that there were only a few light bruises on the young woman's thighs and scratches on her leg and that a lot of the bruises were old. He told the court that the bruises on her leg were consistent with bumping into a piece of furniture. When contacted by this newspaper, he declined to comment on his findings.
[...] Judge Papathanasiou has come under pressure for his courtroom behaviour, which Mr Matsakis described as unacceptable and 'like a primary school teacher shouting at students'. During the woman's shambolic trial, he often yelled angrily at her and at others in court. In one bizarre instance, he reportedly shouted at the teenager for turning to her mother.
'I'm sure he affected her,' Mr Matsakis said. 'He said at one stage that she was looking at her mother and sighing. So what if she looked at her mother? Judging from this case, his behaviour was totally unacceptable and I would say that the authorities need to look into this and see whether he is fit to judge.'
Jamie Doran, who has spent the last three months with the family making a documentary about the case, described the moment the mother and daughter asked him to get them face masks showing their lips sewn together in defiance against her guilty verdict. 'It was entirely their decision and it said so much. That their voices are silenced but only for so long.'
Mr Doran said the family are prepared to fight their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights despite the huge financial burden. 'They have literally been on the bread line,' he said. 'It was only the support from many people, especially the people of Israel who want to see justice, that helped them.'
[...] One of the 12 Israeli youths accused of taking part in the gang-rape caused outrage yesterday by vowing to pursue the British teenager through the courts for compensation. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Yona Golub claimed the 19-year-old student had turned his life into a nightmare. 'We're preparing to sue her,' he declared. 'She deserves to go to jail.'
[...] Amid widespread anger over the case, the country's president is under increasing pressure to issue a pardon... (MORE - details)
- - - - ADDITIONAL --- EDIT
Expert has no doubt British teen was raped (July 12, 2019)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/247301/artic...-was-raped
EXCERPT: Marios Matsakis, a well-known Cypriot private forensic pathologist, told ... that the rape kit exam presented in court as evidence was incomplete. The witness criticized state forensic pathologist Sofocles Sofocleous for leaving out important details in the case of a 19-year-old British female.
[...] In a previous hearing earlier this week, the 19-year-old alleged victim and rape accuser told the court that the she had agreed to have consensual sex with the main suspect, when his friends who had been hiding suddenly appeared in the hotel room and he told her to lie down.
She refused but he placed his penis in her mouth and put his knees on her shoulders, according to her testimony, while other teens started to shout and argue in Hebrew. “I couldn't breathe. I tried to throw my head about and his friends were coming in all shouting and jeering. I tried to cross my legs. I was trying to throw my arms about. I don't know how many of them raped me. I couldn't see,” she told the court.
Matsakis also told the court during Friday's hearing that he had concluded, based on the evidence shared with him, that DNA from at least four individuals was identified, including from three sperm samples in used condoms while fluids from four individuals were also found on the bed sheet.
EXCERPT: Multiple bruises found on a young British woman who alleged she was gang-raped on holiday in Cyprus leave 'no doubt' that she had suffered a violent assault, according to a pathologist [Marios Matsakis]. The student, who faces up to a year in jail after being found guilty of lying, insists she was held down and raped by up to 12 Israeli youths at a budget hotel in Ayia Napa.
Some 35 bruises found across the 19-year-old's legs, arms and buttocks are said to be consistent with her having suffered a violent sexual assault. Marks were also found around her knees and eyes. They were seen in a diagram, compiled by a pathologist who saw photographs of the injuries, in a Cypriot court as she was tried for public mischief.
However, the evidence was dismissed by the judge whose handling of the case before her conviction last week has come under fire in an escalating diplomatic row. Bruises on the teenager's torso are missing because, inexplicably, police took no pictures of her without her shirt on.
The girl's mother says her daughter is suffering from PTSD caused by the months of her legal ordeal, while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has voiced his 'serious concerns' over her treatment ahead of her sentencing on Tuesday. Her psychologist, Dr Christine Tizzard, fears the teenager will be at a heightened risk of suicide if she is jailed this week, the Sunday Times reported. Dr Tizzard added that the student is in urgent need of mental health care and is 'physically and mentally getting worse every day'.
[...] The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, says she retracted her statement about the alleged rape only after pressure from detectives following ten hours of questioning which was not recorded or conducted in front of a lawyer. She then found herself in police custody and stranded on the Mediterranean island for five months charged with public mischief.
During her trial, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, who reduced the woman to tears on a number of occasions, dismissed evidence put forward by UK experts that supported her claim of being attacked and ruled she 'did not make a good impression, she did not tell the truth, and tried to mislead the court'. He did not hear from any of the woman's alleged attackers and was adamant he would not rule on whether she was raped or not, despite three men admitting they had sex with her.
[...] State pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous told the court that the British teenager bore no physical signs consistent with a serious sexual assault. He maintained that there were only a few light bruises on the young woman's thighs and scratches on her leg and that a lot of the bruises were old. He told the court that the bruises on her leg were consistent with bumping into a piece of furniture. When contacted by this newspaper, he declined to comment on his findings.
[...] Judge Papathanasiou has come under pressure for his courtroom behaviour, which Mr Matsakis described as unacceptable and 'like a primary school teacher shouting at students'. During the woman's shambolic trial, he often yelled angrily at her and at others in court. In one bizarre instance, he reportedly shouted at the teenager for turning to her mother.
'I'm sure he affected her,' Mr Matsakis said. 'He said at one stage that she was looking at her mother and sighing. So what if she looked at her mother? Judging from this case, his behaviour was totally unacceptable and I would say that the authorities need to look into this and see whether he is fit to judge.'
Jamie Doran, who has spent the last three months with the family making a documentary about the case, described the moment the mother and daughter asked him to get them face masks showing their lips sewn together in defiance against her guilty verdict. 'It was entirely their decision and it said so much. That their voices are silenced but only for so long.'
Mr Doran said the family are prepared to fight their case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights despite the huge financial burden. 'They have literally been on the bread line,' he said. 'It was only the support from many people, especially the people of Israel who want to see justice, that helped them.'
[...] One of the 12 Israeli youths accused of taking part in the gang-rape caused outrage yesterday by vowing to pursue the British teenager through the courts for compensation. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Yona Golub claimed the 19-year-old student had turned his life into a nightmare. 'We're preparing to sue her,' he declared. 'She deserves to go to jail.'
[...] Amid widespread anger over the case, the country's president is under increasing pressure to issue a pardon... (MORE - details)
- - - - ADDITIONAL --- EDIT
Expert has no doubt British teen was raped (July 12, 2019)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/247301/artic...-was-raped
EXCERPT: Marios Matsakis, a well-known Cypriot private forensic pathologist, told ... that the rape kit exam presented in court as evidence was incomplete. The witness criticized state forensic pathologist Sofocles Sofocleous for leaving out important details in the case of a 19-year-old British female.
[...] In a previous hearing earlier this week, the 19-year-old alleged victim and rape accuser told the court that the she had agreed to have consensual sex with the main suspect, when his friends who had been hiding suddenly appeared in the hotel room and he told her to lie down.
She refused but he placed his penis in her mouth and put his knees on her shoulders, according to her testimony, while other teens started to shout and argue in Hebrew. “I couldn't breathe. I tried to throw my head about and his friends were coming in all shouting and jeering. I tried to cross my legs. I was trying to throw my arms about. I don't know how many of them raped me. I couldn't see,” she told the court.
Matsakis also told the court during Friday's hearing that he had concluded, based on the evidence shared with him, that DNA from at least four individuals was identified, including from three sperm samples in used condoms while fluids from four individuals were also found on the bed sheet.