‘I reported the men who raped me in Cyprus. They still walked free’

The five Israeli men, aged 19 and 20, were arrested the same day as the alleged attack and later charged with abduction, sexual harassment and rape. All insisted the sex was consensual, a defence Sophie’s lawyer has described as “preposterous” as she is openly gay and had never before been physically intimate with a man.

Last month, Cypriot judges returned a not guilty verdict and the five defendants were free to return home to the northern Israeli town of Majd al-Krum, about 11 miles from the Lebanon border.

“It was devastating, I still can’t believe it,” said Sophie, now 21, from Scotland. “I honestly never thought there was a chance they were going to get away. It’s frustrating to know they are just going to go back to their normal lives and they have ruined mine.”

This is not the first case

Ayia Napa was shaken by a gang-rape case in 2019

PETROS KARADJIAS/AP

Sophie’s story bears striking similarity to the 2019 case of a woman from Derbyshire who told police she was gang-raped by 12 Israeli men while on holiday in Ayia Napa.

The woman, then 18, later retracted the allegation after being held without a lawyer for six hours and was herself charged with “causing public mischief”. She was tried and convicted, but the decision was overturned in 2022 by the Supreme Court in Cyprus.

In February the European Court of Human Rights found that the Cypriot authorities breached article 3 (lack of effective investigation) and article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) of human rights laws during their investigation into the Derbyshire woman’s rape. She was awarded £21,500 in compensation and costs.

The judges in Strasbourg criticised how her “credibility appears to have been assessed through prejudicial gender stereotypes and victim-blaming attitudes”, adding: “The case reveals certain biases concerning women in Cyprus which impeded the effective protection of the applicant’s rights as a victim of gender-based violence.”

Judge Michalis Papathanasiou, who convicted the first British woman of lying about her rape in 2019, also sat on the panel of judges that threw out Sophie’s case two weeks ago.

“I feel like Cyprus just has no care for women whatsoever,” Sophie said. “It’s just not a safe country at all. You just have to look at everything they have done over the past few months. It’s as if a woman gets raped in Cyprus and it’s just allowed.

“I feel like the whole time I was in the police station it was almost as if I had done something wrong. They had no sympathy whatsoever. I didn’t feel like I was treated very well at all.”

Partying in the pool — then he grabbed my wrist

INGUS KRUKLITIS/GETTY IMAGES

Until the attack, Sophie’s holiday — her first away from parents — had been “great, I was definitely enjoying myself”. Along with three friends, she attended various parties, nightclubs, and bars. Three days before they were due to head home, the group headed to a pool party at the Fedrania Gardens hotel, which is said to be popular with both British and Israeli partygoers.

One of the defendants kept approaching Sophie in the water. She repeatedly told him to go away, but he appeared not to speak English. After Sophie got out of the pool, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up to his room. Two of her friends had left to go back to their hotel, while the third had walked off to check on their bags, so she was left fighting him off alone.

“I think I was about halfway up the stairs and it was like I froze. I was just trying to unwrap his arms from around my wrists,” she said. “I didn’t think [rape] was going to happen, so I wasn’t exactly causing a scene. I just kept trying to get through the language barrier and say no. But I didn’t act quick enough and the next thing I knew I was getting dragged into a room.”

Inside the hotel room, two of the men raped her, one forced her to perform oral sex, while the others pinned her down, she said. Her body was left covered in blood and bruises. DNA evidence relating to two of the men was admitted as evidence in the trial, but was thrown out by the court because standard police processes were not followed when the samples were collected.

After escaping the room she immediately notified hotel staff and the police were called. All the suspects were arrested in the room and held on remand until the trial in February 2024. She gave evidence over four days.

Three judges ruled her evidence had not been credible because it “lacked coherence and contained numerous substantial contradictions”.

Clock ticking for chance to appeal

Sophie’s case poses difficult questions for the Cypriot authorities and their ability to investigate sexual violence, her lawyer, Michael Polak, said. He also represented the first British rape victim through his international legal service, Justice Abroad.

“Following the publicity in relation to the last Ayia Napa rape case, there was a lot of noise made about improving things in Cyprus in relation to the investigation of sexual offences. However, unfortunately this has not taken place,” he said.

Polak still has not received a written copy of the court’s ruling in Sophie’s case, he said, making it tricky to comment on why the judges ruled against her.

Sophie has no legal recourse to appeal against the decision: only the attorney-general of Cyprus, George Savvides, can do so within 14 days of the ruling. He has until Tuesday to announce his decision.

“On behalf of the young victim in this case we call on the attorney-general to appeal against the acquittals,” Polak said. “She is openly gay and the idea that she entered into consensual group sex with the defendants who did not even speak the same language is preposterous.”

Sophie hopes to take the fight to the Supreme Court and is crowdfunding her legal fees. “I hope the attorney-general might at least think about looking it over again,” she said. “I just hope this doesn’t happen to another woman.”