Judge's 'discourtesy' towards British teenager in Cyprus gang rape case will form part of her appeal

The judge who convicted a British teenager of lying about an alleged gang rape in a Cyprus holiday resort acted with such “discourtesy” that the young woman did not receive a fair trial, her lawyers will argue as they appeal the conviction.

The 19-year-old from Derbyshire was found guilty of public mischief in January and given a four-month suspended sentence by the judge, Michalis Papathanasiou.

He ruled that she had lied when she claimed she was repeatedly raped by a group of Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the party town of Ayia Napa last July.

Her lawyers immediately pledged to appeal the ruling to the Cyprus Supreme Court and have now released their principal arguments for challenging the conviction.

“It will be submitted that … the trial judge acted with discourtesy towards the teenager in such a way as to deny the teenager a fair trial,” said the legal team, which includes Lewis Power, a London-based QC, and Michael Polak from Justice Abroad, which helps Britons who find themselves in legal trouble overseas.

They cited a recent civil case in which the presiding judge was found by an appeals court to have “developed an animus towards the claimant.”

During the trial, the defence team complained of the judge’s brusque manner towards the clearly traumatised British teenager and objected when he shouted at her.

The defence team have submitted a 154-page skeleton argument which will form the basis of their appeal, due to be heard by the Supreme Court in Nicosia later this year.

They will challenge the conviction on the basis that the teenager signed a statement retracting her original gang rape claim after being questioned in a police station for seven hours, without a lawyer, family member or translator present.

The British woman had been “placed under intense pressure to retract the rape allegation,” her lawyers said.

They will repeat arguments they made during the trial that the retraction statement was written in such poor English that it was most likely dictated by a Cypriot police sergeant rather than penned by the teenager, who was articulate and had obtained several unconditional university offers.

The sergeant denied that allegation during the trial. The police did not record their questioning of the teenager.

“We have submitted a detailed skeleton argument which sets out exactly why the teenager’s conviction, which was reported around the world in January, is unsafe and needs to be overturned,” said Mr Polak.

“It refers to a number of authorities from Cyprus, common law jurisdictions, and the European Court of Human Rights which strongly support what we have been saying about this case for a long time, that the teenager should not have been found guilty and that for her to have to go through life with this conviction would be a miscarriage of justice.”

The lawyers referred to other trials which were “almost factually identical to the teenager’s case in that many of them refer to confession evidence taken in circumstances which render that evidence unreliable, such as where it involves a young person, put under pressure, without a lawyer, and without any other procedural safeguards such as the recording of police interviews.”

The judge had failed to take into account crucial evidence, including a condom which bore DNA evidence from three of the Israeli youths as well as blood.

If the appeal to the Supreme Court fails, the defence team say they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In his sentencing remarks in January, the judge said the charge of public mischief was a serious crime, saying the teenager had falsely incriminated 12 Israeli men, who were arrested after the alleged attack.

He ruled that there had been “no rape at all” and that the testimony she gave the court was “false”.

He said he handed down a suspended sentence after taking into account the woman’s young age and her fragile emotional state.

The 12 Israeli tourists, aged between 15 and 20, denied any wrongdoing and returned home after being freed from police custody.