Support has been shown for the teenager who reported rape
Is this HOW WE TREAT
VICTIMS? Raped, blamed, and failed by authorities
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tumbling from court, covering her face beneath a scarf with a mask showing a drawn-on pair of stitched-shut lips, this young woman’s message was clear. In the last six months, she’d been stripped of her dignity, freedom and basic human rights, and effectively silenced. Yet, despite their best efforts, not even a judge and the full force of the Cypriot police service could take her voice.
‘The fight will go on to clear my name,’ she vowed, clutching her mother’s arm as she headed home to the UK. Supporters held signs and chanted ‘we believe you’, echoing the uproar felt by many that an injustice had played out on the international stage. The unnamed teenager had been enjoying a working holiday in Ayia Napa before starting university when she reported being gang-raped by a group of Israeli men in July 2019. Initially, police arrested 12 suspects, before turning on the then-18-year-old, accusing her of lying, quizzing her for hours without a lawyer, and pressuring her to sign a statement recanting all allegations. While the men were released without charge, she spent five weeks in jail, 16
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accused of making false allegations UK police promised to treat until being released on house the woman as a victim arrest. Following a trial, where prosecutors hounded her for six hours, dismissing bruises she attributed to being pinned down as ‘jellyfish stings’, she was convicted of Georgina Mortimer, 49, is a doctor ‘public mischief’ and handed a fourwho lives in Hertfordshire with her month suspended sentence. two daughters, aged 19 and 17. Her supporters and women’s rights Waking up in the pitch black at 3am, advocates screamed about corruption I felt the weight of a man on top of me, and misogyny towards sex-assault victims his hand around my throat, pinning me in some foreign, perhaps less progressive, to the bed as he raped me. Yet, while the countries. Foreign secretary Dominic terror was overwhelming, I also felt utter Raab said he had ‘very serious concerns’ disbelief that this was happening. about her treatment, while UK police I’d only arrived at the shared villa in promised to treat her as a victim, St Lucia 30 hours earlier, in February offering family-liaison and victim2016. It was supposed to be a dream support services on her return. Caribbean holiday, where I’d learn to Yet, the Cypriot authorities aren’t ail. That evening, I’d without their supporters, and some njoyed myself at a trolls have even abused the teenager reet carnival before online. The fallout of this case is etting a taxi back, huge, and with more women now nd now here I was, coming forward with similar stories ardly able to breathe of victim-blaming, oppression nd sure I was about and contemptible treatment by be murdered. I was authorities abroad, Woman nly saved when a investigates the repercussions and an, who’d heard me lessons that could be learned...
‘POLICE DIDN’T EVEN TRY’
