Cypriot authorities failed to adequately investigate the original claims of a British woman who was later convicted of lying about being gang-raped on holiday there, according to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
The woman, now in her 20s, was 19 in the summer of 2019 when she claimed she was raped by 12 Israeli men at a hotel in the party resort of Ayia Napa.
Following the retraction of her statement 10 days later, she was charged with “public mischief” for making the allegations. The woman, from Derbyshire, spent over a month in jail awaiting trial and was eventually given a suspended prison sentence.
Her conviction was overturned after appealing against her case with the Supreme Court in Nicosia. The judge ruled that she had likely been forced into changing her statement and did not receive a fair trial.
On Thursday, the case came before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where a judge concluded that Cypriot police and prosecutors “had fallen short of the state’s duty to effectively investigate the applicant’s allegations”.
The judgment noted that “The credibility of her allegations appeared to have been assessed through prejudicial gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes.”
The court also ruled that the lack of an effective investigation represented a violation of her right to a private and family life. It awarded her €20,000 (£16,500) in damages and €5,000 (£4,100) in costs.